Reform MS who defected to Plaid Cymru says Nigel Farage’s party is ‘falling apart’

A member of the Senedd who defected from Reform UK to Plaid Cymru following the resignation of the party’s leader in Wales has said Nigel Farage’s party is “falling apart at the seams”.

Sarah Cooper-Lesadd quit Reform UK on the same day it was revealed its Welsh leader, Dan Thomas, had been arrested on suspicion of assault and controlling or coercive behaviour.

Ms Cooper-Lesadd said Reform UK “just completely did not chime with the type of person that I am and the values that I have”.

She told the BBC: “There were other several things. The party’s completely chaotic, it’s falling apart at the seams, it really, really is.”

Dan Thomas, who was named the party’s Welsh leader in February and led Reform to become the second-largest in the Senedd in May, stood down on Tuesday after he was arrested on suspicion of assault and controlling or coercive behaviour.

He said he was was released without charge over the weekend, and standing down from his role for “personal reasons”, but would continue as a member of the Senedd.

Following the announcement of Mr Thomas’ resignation, Plaid Cymru said Sarah Cooper-Lesadd, who was elected as a Reform Member of the Senedd in May, had defected to join the governing party.

In a statement issued by Plaid Cymru, she said Reform UK centrally has “no interest in Wales” and was using the Senedd group as a “staging post in the effort to get Nigel Farage into Downing Street”.

“Reform has no interest in the work I came here to do. They are not serious about governing Wales,” she said.

“They are far more interested in division, opposition and headlines than in finding solutions.”

She later told the BBC the party is “completely chaotic” and was “falling apart at the seams”.

“When I came into Reform, I did think that there was a certain element of being a broad church, and that’s what I believed,” she said.

“It has become extremely narrow, whereas Plaid has a set of values that is values-based, and that’s what I believe in.”

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