Helen Jenner

But I would like to talk to you about an anomaly recently.

So Helen Jenner has announced her cabinet, her shadow cabinet.

So because they are the official opposition, they have to name a cabinet which is opposed to the Welsh Government cabinet.

And then when there are questions of, for instance, the housing minister, the shadow housing minister for reform will ask those questions.

They don't get extra pay for this, but I'll explain why I think they've done this.

Now, there are two potential reasons.

Now, one of the reasons might be that Helen Jenner has gone...

Wales has got a lot of myriad of very complex problems, and I want the best people in the role, and I want to make the roles more specific than the Welsh Government have made, because I want them to be able to get inside their brief, to understand the minutiae of this, to really be able to hold this Welsh Government to account.

Dan Thomas, who was appointed leader of reform in Wales back in February, was arrested on suspicion of assault and controlling or coercive behaviour.

He was subsequently suspended from the party, and has now been replaced by Helen Jenner.

Considering that Wales is a part of the UK that Reform has performed electorally well in, with them coming second in the Senedd election this year, the fact that two of their most senior figures in Wales have been booted out following troubles with the law certainly doesn't bode well.

Even prior to the news about Dan Thomas, Reform's polling in Wales seems to have slumped, from 26% in May last year to 19% in early September.

By the time we arrived in the meeting room, Reform's MSes had chosen their new leader.

Helen Jenner, MS for Bangor Conley Mon and Dan Thomas's former deputy, now had to prepare to meet the press.

But I grabbed an exclusive first interview with her for the Reform UK podcast.

Why did you want the job?

for him to continue as leader whilst he had these domestic disputes going on.

So we very quickly and rapidly have moved to electing a new leader.

And as you can see, Helen Jenner is now the leader of reform in Wales.

Nigel went on to explain that he had known Helen for many years, describing her as a determined campaigner who had his trust.

Of course, she said that.

So on Monday this week, Nigel Farage unveiled Helen Jenner, who had beaten Jason O'Connell by just 17 votes to 15 votes.

in a ballot of Reform's Senedd group.

Now, to explain quite what is going on, Alex spoke on Tuesday to our tame Welsh politics expert, journalist and author Will Hayward, because it is his professional misfortune to understand such things as this.

Thank you so much for having me, it's always good to be on.

It's been a quiet summer in Wales, politics-wise, and then suddenly it all went very, very hectic, didn't it, in the last couple of weeks? More recently now, we've had the new leader unveiled.

It's a lady called Helen Jenner.

Do we know much about Helen Jenner?

On Monday, talking about reform, acquiring a new Welsh leader.

That, of course, was Helen Jenner in the wake of the resignation of Dan Thomas as reform Wales leader after news broke that he had been arrested on suspicion of assault and coercive or controlling behavior.

He has denied any wrongdoing.

That police investigation continues.

And in the meantime, of course, there was an election amongst the reformed members of the Senedd to elect Helen Jenner.

Nigel Farage came to the Senedd to announce the result of that and endorse Helen Jenner as the new permanent leader.

But, of course, that left a vacancy, Dan, didn't it, for a deputy leader.

And that result was announced then on Tuesday.

like the Steve Wright show all over again.

How are you, Gitto? Shabbai, all good? So Helen Jenner, probably not a household name in Wales, is now Reform's new leader in Wales, having replaced Dan Thomas.

Nigel Farage was in town.

I suppose it's a good chance for us to get an impression from you of where do you think Reform are going in the UK right now?

But in his case, it's spilled over into public life.

That's really awkward.

But An interesting appointment in Helen Jenner.

I think the fact that you've got somebody who's literally marking Fianna Fáil with, you know, man for man, woman for man from the same patch, beautiful welsh um speaks welsh fluently loves wales as much as he does to be honest it takes a lot of the toxicity uh that applied have been trying to generate against reform away and so we're looking weirdly at a very interesting battle now um in the center then i think you'll know more about this both of you than me but I suspect with her that what they're up against is something that's harder to dismiss because she's serious, she's committed to the Senedd, she's committed to Wales, and so we'll have a genuine opposition there, and hopefully that will determine that the group are there not to be disruptive and difficult, but to be constructive and opposed.

Reform UK has appointed a new leader in Wales after the arrest last week of Dan Thomas on suspicion of assault.

Announcing Helen Jenner as Mr Thomas' replacement, Nigel Farage described the party's problems as a bump in the road.

More from our Wales correspondent, Hal Griffith.

After securing a record result in May's Senedd election, Reform's fortunes in Wales had seemed to be on the up, until last week brought 24 hours of chaos.

That was swiftly followed by the defection of a Reform Senedd member to Plaid Cymru.

Today, Nigel Farage came to Cardiff Bay to calm the waters and anoint a new leader.

Helen Jenner steps up from her role as deputy and says she's focused on taking the party into government in the 2030 Senedd election.

Mr Farage says Dan Thomas' resignation was inevitable.