Reform threatens Labour's Welsh votes - former FM

Labour needs to talk plainly on the doorstep and reclaim its title as the party of working people to counter the threat of Reform in Wales, Carwyn Jones has said.

The former first minister also said he wanted to use his new position in the House of Lords to be a "voice for Wales" and a proponent for devolution in Parliament's upper chamber.

Jones said no party would likely win a majority under a new proportional voting system set to be implemented for next year's Senedd election.

"I think anybody who pretends that can happen is not really being straight with themselves," said the Labour peer.

"I think it's a question of who comes first, which party has the most seats," he told PA news agency in one of his first media interviews since returning to frontline politics.

"They will be the party in the driving seat in terms of determining who will be first minister.

"It is then a question of who will work with whom? I cannot see Labour and Plaid working with Reform."

Jones said while it would be difficult to predict how polling might shift by the elections, Labour should now be asking why it was losing a "slice of our vote" to Reform, and how it takes on the rival party.

"We have got to answer that question and get it back.

"Ultimately, they're funded by millionaires, they have very well-off people leading them, and yet they're pretending to be the party of working people."

Among the regions where Reform UK could gain ground are the Labour-voting heartlands of the south Wales valleys and parts of rural mid Wales, which have typically swung between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

Jones said the party had so far offered people living in Wales an "anti-politics vote" but not "anything beyond that".

Reform is yet to set out its policy platform for how it might play a part in leading Wales following the Senedd elections in May 2026.

"Come and see me on 11 May," party leader Nigel Farage told reporters at a recent press conference in central London when asked about a Welsh manifesto, suggesting he would hold a Senedd campaign launch on that date.

Caroline Jones, a spokesperson for Reform, said she believed the party will do "very, very well" in the next Senedd elections, claiming it has "caught the other parties sleeping" as "they haven't listened to what the public want".

"I want us to be the main party in the Senedd," she added.

Ms Jones accused Labour MSs stepping down at the next election of "jumping off the ship" and "clearing the way for Reform to overtake".

Responding to criticism over her party's lack of policies, she added: "Every time we put a policy out another party take it, we're not showing all our cards as we have done in the past prematurely, we are looking at having a good set of Welsh policies ready for the Senedd elections."

A barrister by profession, Jones served as Wales' first minister between 2009 and 2018.

His predecessor Rhodri Morgan was said to have turned down a peerage on two occasions, and Jones' successor Mark Drakeford has ruled out accepting an appointment to an unelected upper chamber.

While he remains a supporter of former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown's recommendations for the Lords to be reformed into an elected upper chamber, Jones said he accepted a peerage as it was "important to have a voice from Welsh Labour who sat in the devolved parliament".

"I want to be a voice for Wales, clearly, and a voice for devolved Wales," he added.

Existing Labour peers were among those who Jones said had encouraged him to accept the nomination for a peerage, which was made by the prime minister in December.

Jones told PA: "Several people already up here said, 'Look, you need to come here'. One person said to me, 'We need young people like yourself'.

"I said, 'I'm 57' and they said, 'exactly'."