Zaynub Akbar, Plaid Cymru Member of the Senedd for Caerdydd Ffynnon Taf, has condemned racist and degrading language by Reform UK councillors and campaigners revealed in an ITV undercover investigation. She says it exposes the party’s true agenda ahead of Wednesday’s Senedd debate on banning face coverings.
ITV Exposure’s Undercover: A Year in Reform, broadcast on Sunday 18 October, showed Reform UK councillors describing Asian families as “parasites” and speaking about female colleagues in crude sexual terms. A would-be Reform UK parliamentary candidate was filmed saying: “You cannot be Muslim and British, it’s like oil and water.” He has since been suspended.
In Wales, the programme also filmed Martin Roberts, a former Reform UK branch treasurer in Pontypridd, using a racist slur during the Caerphilly by-election and telling an undercover reporter: “Say what you want around me.” At May’s Senedd election, Mr Roberts stood as a Reform UK candidate in Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr on the same list as Jason O’Connell MS, who will lead Wednesday’s debate, and campaigned alongside him.
On Wednesday 21 October, Reform UK will lead a short debate in the Senedd claiming full-face coverings go “against British values”. Policing and criminal law are not devolved, so the Senedd cannot make such a ban. Earlier this month, Reform UK’s Deputy Leader in Wales, Laura Anne Jones MS, wrote on Facebook that the party’s position was “clear: ban the burqa and every other full-face covering in public”.
Zaynub Akbar MS said:
“The language in this programme is hateful, and Reform UK should be ashamed of it. Last night we heard how Reform UK talks when it thinks nobody is listening. On Wednesday, we will hear how it talks when it knows the cameras are on. People should judge Reform UK on both.
“One of its would-be candidates was filmed saying that being Muslim and British is ‘like oil and water’. On Wednesday, its MSs will debate what Muslim women can wear. It is the same Islamophobic message. No one in Wales should be singled out for their faith or their gender.
“Reform UK says this is about public safety. Its own Deputy Leader in Wales has already told us what it is about: ‘ban the burqa’. Women who wear the burqa are not a threat to anyone. Far more often, they are the ones being threatened. Police already have the powers to deal with anyone who hides their face to commit crime. This debate cannot change the law, and was never meant to.
“Muslim women in Wales, myself included, are tired of being made a target. Muslim women feel the effects of debates like this on the bus, at the school gate, at work and online. Hate crimes against Muslims have risen by almost 15%* in a year in England and Wales. Words spoken in our Senedd carry consequences well beyond its walls.
“The man filmed during the Caerphilly by-election was on the same Reform UK ballot paper as the MS leading this debate. Jason O’Connell should tell the people of Wales what checks his party put in place for its own candidates.
“Reform UK claims the people in this programme do not share its values. If that is true, its MSs should say so publicly, withdraw this debate and apologise.”
*https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crime-england-and-wales-year-ending-march-2026/hate-crime-england-and-wales-year-ending-march-2026