BRIDGEND CHAOS: Three of Reform’s six Pen-y-bont Senedd candidates have quit — and nobody knows who’ll replace them
Reform UK is facing a crisis in Bridgend after three of its six candidates for the area’s Senedd constituency quit in rapid succession — leaving the party without its top two names just weeks before polling day and with no replacements yet announced.
The triple resignation in Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg — the new Senedd constituency covering Bridgend and the Vale of Glamorgan — means it is currently unclear who will represent the party on election day. Nominations close on April 9, and Reform has told the BBC it intends to present a full list.
The first to go was Corey Edwards, who had been placed first on the list and therefore had the best chance of winning a seat for the party. He resigned after a photograph emerged appearing to show him performing a Nazi salute. Nigel Farage initially defended Edwards, claiming he had been impersonating Basil Fawlty. Edwards stood down the following day.
The second resignation came from Derek Roberts, who had been placed second on the list. A Reform source confirmed he had stepped back for “personal reasons” that have not been made public, describing him as an ex-military figure who “remains an active champion for veterans in his community.”
As first and second on a six-seat proportional list, both Edwards and Roberts had a realistic chance of being elected in May. Their departures have stripped the party of its most likely winners in the constituency.
The third candidate to leave was Owain Clatworthy, placed sixth. As Swansea Bay News reported, Clatworthy made history last year when he won the Pyle, Kenfig Hill and Cefn Cribwr by-election by just 30 votes, becoming Bridgend County Borough Council’s youngest ever councillor at 20 years old. He has now resigned from Reform entirely, saying he will continue to serve his ward as an independent.
In a public statement, Clatworthy cited “poor internal decision making, a lack of discipline and serious concerns around candidate selection,” accusing the party of selecting candidates “with little or no connection to the communities they seek to represent.” Speaking to BBC Wales, he said the Edwards photograph “really did it for me. I can’t support a party that would be happy to back something like that.”
He added: “The country is in a mess and it’s easy to complain and I thought Reform were the answer. From day one, up until now, the way I have been treated, and members and other councillors have been treated by the leadership team, is not good.”
The Pen-y-bont situation is the sharpest expression of a wider problem that has engulfed Reform’s Welsh campaign in recent days. In total, the party has lost four candidates across Wales in a single week — with a further two having withdrawn before the official lists were even published. Patrick Benham-Crosswell, Reform’s fourth-placed candidate in Gŵyr Abertawe, was among those to go — his furious departure, which Swansea Bay News was first to report, saw him accuse the party of taking members and candidates “for granted.” Andrew Barry resigned from the Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr slate and from Reform itself, saying candidates were being “parachuted in” to areas with no connection to them.
The scale of the problem has been confirmed by sources inside the party. A separate source told the BBC that local Reform branches “were in turmoil.” A whistleblower described the vetting process as “expensive, flawed and unprofessional,” and said the system “favours insiders, parachuted candidates and personal connections over local knowledge and competence.”
Even one of the party’s own candidates who survived the process has spoken critically of it. Torfaen Reform councillor Jason O’Connell, who is standing as Reform’s number one candidate in Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr, told BBC Radio Wales’ Sunday Supplement that the vetting had been “brutal” and “intrusive,” saying the party had rejected “genuinely good people” over old social media posts. “We’ve lost that ability to bring them in because, as I said, digital is forever,” he said.
There is also a practical consequence to the resignations beyond the reputational damage. Under the new Welsh voting system, parties are required to put forward full lists of candidates in each constituency. Having fewer than six candidates not only affects a party’s chances of winning seats — it limits how much they are legally allowed to spend on their campaign. Reform has said it will field a full list, but with nominations closing on April 9 and no replacements announced, the clock is ticking.
The turmoil in Bridgend comes as Reform holds significant polling support in the constituency. The party has been targeting working-class communities across south Wales valleys and coastal towns, and polling has projected it as competitive across the region. The question now is whether the chaos in its candidate selection damages that support — or whether, as has happened elsewhere in the UK, voters back the party regardless of the turbulence at the top.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
Reform beat Labour by 30 votes in council by-election
Owain Clatworthy’s narrow by-election win that made him Bridgend’s youngest ever councillor — and set him on the path to now quitting Reform.
Swansea Reform UK candidate quits in furious ‘betrayal’ rant – ‘Party has sunk into the sewer!’
The Gŵyr Abertawe resignation Swansea Bay News broke first — one of four Reform departures across Wales in a week.
Reform Senedd hopeful quits party over claims of ‘rigged’ selection process in Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion
The selection row that has been spreading across Wales ahead of the May 7 vote.
Plaid Cymru storms ahead as shock Senedd poll predicts political earthquake in Wales
The polling context — and whether Reform’s chaos is showing up in the numbers.
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Kit Peters
Owen Donovan