Britain · updated 1h ago · 2 min read
Dan Thomas Resigns as Reform UK Wales Leader After Gwent Police Arrest
Dan Thomas resigns as Reform UK Wales leader after arrest on suspicion of assault. Arrested Sunday, bailed pending further enquiries; later released without charge.
Whether the resignation is attributed to misconduct or personal reasons.
7 of 8 outlets skipped it: nigel Farage did not address the arrest on his GB News show.
GB News was read line by line by the Watchdog: 1.5. See the score →
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The Telegraph
“Reform UK’s leader in Wales has stepped down after being arrested by police on suspicion of assault at the weekend.”Read the original ↗
The Independent
“In a statement released on Tuesday, he said he was standing down from his role for “personal reasons”,”Read the original ↗
The Telegraph foregrounds the arrest and sanctions context, while the Independent leads with Thomas’s “personal reasons” statement.
Dan Thomas quits Reform Wales
Dan Thomas, the Reform UK leader in Wales and Leader of the Opposition in Cardiff Bay, resigned after Gwent Police confirmed he was arrested on Sunday 13 September on suspicion of assault and engaging in controlling/coercive behaviour.
“Dan Thomas was unveiled as Reform UK's leader in Wales on February 5”
In his resignation statement, Thomas said, “With deep regret, I am now standing down from this position due to personal reasons,” and he added that he was released without charge after being reported to the police over the weekend.
Gwent Police said, “On Sunday 13 September a 45-year-old man, from the Aberbargoed area, was arrested on suspicion of assault and engaging in controlling/coercive behaviour,” and that he was bailed pending further enquiries.
The resignation came as Thomas missed First Minister’s Questions on Tuesday, September 15, on the first day back of the Senedd term, with Helen Jenner standing in as his replacement against Plaid Cymru First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth.
Defection and party turmoil
Following Thomas’s resignation, Sarah Cooper-Lesadd, elected to represent Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg on May 7, defected to Plaid Cymru and accused Reform of not being “serious about governing Wales”.
Cooper-Lesadd said, “Reform has no interest in the work I came here to do. They are not serious about governing Wales,” framing her move as a rejection of what she described as division and headlines.
Welsh Labour leader Ken Skates told the Press Association that Thomas’s departure raised “many questions” and argued that “Dan Thomas was a personal pick by Nigel Farage”.
In parallel, the GB News report said Reform UK lost one of its members after the defection, and it cited a Survation opinion poll finding support for Reform UK now stands at 31 per cent in Wales.
What’s at stake next
With Thomas stepping down, Reform UK faced the immediate task of selecting its next Welsh leader in Cardiff Bay, after the party’s Senedd group had already been reshaped by the defection of Sarah Cooper-Lesadd to Plaid Cymru.
“people are innocent until proven guilty”
The Guardian reported that Thomas’s resignation came as a major blow to Reform, noting that Thomas had led Reform to become the second-largest party in the Senedd at the election in May and that Reform had aimed to become Wales’s biggest party.
The Guardian also quoted Ken Skates saying, “Nigel Farage chose to make Nathan Gill his leader in Wales and he turned out to be a Russian asset,” and it tied that criticism to other allegations involving Reform figures.
In the same Guardian report, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said on X that “people are innocent until proven guilty” while adding there was “a pattern” in terms of Conservatives who had defected to Nigel Farage’s party.