Llyr Powell, who has been chosen as the Reform candidate for the upcoming Caerphilly Senedd by-election. Photo Ben Birchall/PA Wire

Martin Shipton

The newly selected Reform UK candidate in the Caerphilly by-election has been described as a “political chancer” after an examination of his tweets revealed him to be an ex-Tory who has completely changed his attitude to the Conservative Party since joining Reform.

Plaid Cymru highlighted social media posts by Llyr Powell, who was introduced by Reform leader Nigel Farage on Friday as his party’s candidate in the October 23 election caused by the sudden death in August of Labour MS Hefin David.

‘Formidable’

In July 2022, at a time when the Conservatives were electing a new leader following the resignation of Boris Johnson, Mr Powell tweeted in relation to Kemi Badenoch’s appeal for support: “This is a seriously strong pitch. Kemi Badenoch would make a formidable Leader and Prime Minister. I do hope she can make it through to [the] membership ballot!”.

A week later, after Ms Badenoch had been eliminated from the contest, Mr Powell tweeted: “I supported Kemi but would never vote for Penny [Mordaunt]. Rather Liz [Truss] on the final ballot.”

Ms Truss was elected party leader and became Prime Minister, but was forced out of office after less than two months following a disastrous mini-budget that spooked the financial markets and caused the pound to fall to its lowest ever exchange rate against the US dollar. She became the shortest serving Prime Minister in British history.

Looking ahead to the next Tory leadership election, Mr Powell noted a tweet from Young Conservative “internet personality” Emily Hewertson that said: “It’s almost certainly going to be Penny Mordaunt or Rishi Sunak”, and responded: “Probably for the best and hopefully after 2024 Kemi can be the person who rebuilds.”

In May 2022 Mr Powell had been a Tory candidate in Grangetown at Cardiff council’s most recent city-wide election. He came 11th in the four-seat ward with 442 votes.

By New Year’s Day 2025, however he had abandoned the Conservative Party and joined Reform, tweeting as if he had never been associated with them: “The Tories can spin, promise and deflect all they like, but after 14 years of chaos, nobody trusts them at [sic] and nobody will again. Britain is broken. Britain needs Reform.”

‘Sinking Tories’

Liz Saville Roberts, the Westminster leader of Plaid Cymru, said: “This is yet more evidence that Reform UK is nothing but a last chance raft for sinking Tories. Meanwhile, Plaid Cymru’s Lindsay Whittle has dedicated decades to fighting for local people. That’s the real choice in Caerphilly – a community champion with Plaid or a political chancer with Reform.”

Before joining the Conservatives, Mr Powell had worked for UKIP as a spokesman in Wales – a role he held until recently with Reform.

He was also involved as a director with a short-lived pro-Brexit think tank called the Centre for Welsh Studies, which received secret funding from right-wing financiers in the United States to push their ideological agenda.

Its board of advisers included former Welsh Secretary David Jones, the then Conservative MPs James Davies and Sarah Atherton and the Brexit Party MEP Nathan Gill, who later became the leader of Reform UK in Wales and is currently awaiting trial for allegedly taking money from Putin’s Russia to ask questions in the European Parliament.

Violence

Mr Powell’s co-director of the Centre for Welsh Studies, Matthew MacKinnon, was one of five football fans banned from Swansea City’s stadium in 2012 for three years. In addition they were also ordered not to enter any town or city where Swansea City or Wales were playing away on the day of a match. The order was made by Swansea magistrates on the basis that they had caused or contributed to violence and disorder, which they admitted.

Mr MacKinnon also ran a climate change denial group called Eco Central, which used Facebook adverts to spread false and misleading information against what it called “climate alarmism”.

Eco Central’s campaigns featured doctored images of child environmental activist Greta Thunberg, and a Facebook banner for the organisation labelled Sir David Attenborough an “eco hypocrite”.

Mr MacKinnon, who previously worked for Brecon and Radnor MS James Evans, is now the director of external affairs at Reform UK.

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