Reform to challenge Labour at Senedd poll - Farage

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said that the Senedd 2026 election will be his party's biggest priority that year.

Speaking at the party's Welsh conference in Newport on Friday, he said: "This campaign, the one leading up to 2026 will be in that calendar year, for me as national party leader, by far our biggest priority."

Farage returned to the UK just a day after flying home from the United States having supported Donald Trump's successful presidential campaign.

He is expected to take charge of Reform's Welsh efforts in 18 months, and said there was a "distinct possibility" that Reform would go into those elections with a Welsh leader.

Farage also ruled out a deal with the Welsh Conservatives ahead of the 2026 election, saying "they can do what they want".

"We are going to be in those elections. The main challenge to Labour, that's the ambition," he added.

Farage became an MP at the eight attempt at July's general election and represents Clacton, in Essex, at Westminster.

He added that he would be surprised if his party did not have a Welsh leader by 2026.

"This conference is the first time that, effectively, we've got Reform members all over Wales together in a room.

"It's open to members only. We're forming branches. We're going to get activists. We're applying for candidates. Give me time."

He added: "I think it's a distinct possibility that we will go into those set of elections with a Welsh leader. I'd be surprised if we don't."

Farage has called on his party members to put themselves forward as candidates for the 2026 election, as part of what he called a "people's army".

"I need all of you in whatever way you can to get involved with this people's army, to join us, to join the local branches, to put yourself forward for treasurer or whatever it may be," he said.

He asked people to sign up and leave their personal details with local Reform groups before leaving the conference.

Farage said the NHS needed reform and that the "entirety of the funding model" does not work.

"We cannot just keep on pouring more and more money into the same pot with the same management structures and expecting a different result.

"We have to look at a country like France, who spend less money on health but get much better outcomes.

"They do it through a mutual insurance system. If you haven't got the money, you haven't got to pay, if you do have the money you pay in effectively to an insurance scheme, it works far better," he said.

He added that Welsh voters "need somebody to provide opposition to a completely failing devolved Labour administration."

Reform are yet to publish a list of policies specific to Wales for the election.

Party insiders are targeting a return of at least 16 Members of the Senedd (MSs) in 2026, with Farage having previously said that Reform would win "a lot of seats".

Reform did not win any in Wales in this year's general election, but came second in 13 of the 32 seats and secured 16.9% of the vote.

The Senedd's new system of 16 constituencies, each returning six MSs, is expected to be more favourable to Reform than the first-past-the-post system used for Westminster elections.

If Reform does win seats in 2026, it would mark another anti-establishment breakthrough for Farage in Cardiff Bay.

He was the leader of UKIP when that party won seven seats in 2016, before in-fighting saw the group fall apart over the course of the Senedd term.

Farage later led the Brexit Party, which also had a group in the Senedd.

The Brexit Party became Reform UK.

The party also has councillors in Wales for the first time, with three independent members of Torfaen council switching to Reform soon after the general election.

The emergence of Reform and its relatively high share of the vote represents a challenge to both Labour and the Conservatives in Wales.

Polling expert Richard Wyn Jones, from the Wales Governance Centre, told the BBC that Reform would have challenges of its own in targeting voters.

He said: "An average Reform voter would be a middle-aged man.

"So their voters are younger, much younger, than the average Conservative voter.

"They're quite conservative socially, but they're actually quite left-wing economically.

"And it's not clear to me if Reform think they need to cater to that kind of more leftish elements in the world view of their voters, because that's not something you associate with the people financing Reform."

If you’re living in the south Wales valleys or other parts of post-industrial Wales, Nigel Farage is pretty confident you’re open to being wooed at the next Senedd election.

Reform is especially keen to win over anyone who’s become disillusioned with mainstream politics.

If that sounds familiar, Farage has just returned from the post-election Trump party in Florida.

Reform’s message is simple - Labour has let people down in Wales during its 25 years in power and Reform is the alternative.

Other than it not being one of the other parties we don’t know what that alternative would look like, as there isn’t yet a list of Wales-specific policies.

Farage is also going to rely on his personal appeal as he tries to win you over.

He will be the face of the campaign and we’ve been told to expect to see him here every week as polling day approaches.

Some surveys suggest the leader himself might not be as popular in Wales as he might like, but Reform is polling at around 14-17 seats .

That would represent a big block in the new expanded 96-seat Senedd.

Love him or not, Nigel Farage and Reform are on the verge of shaking things up in Welsh politics.