Reform boycotts Senedd after member banned for saying white people being replaced

Reform UK’s Welsh group said it would boycott most Senedd proceedings on Wednesday in protest at a speaking ban imposed on member Joe Martin. The dispute centres on Martin’s claim that white people are being “replaced”; the Presiding Officer said he could speak again only after showing he understood the rules of parliamentary conduct and apologising in the chamber.

Welsh leader Helen Jenner called the ban an infringement of free speech and said Reform members would work from their offices before returning for an evening vote. Martin said his claim was a fact, while Presiding Officer Huw Irranca-Davies described his remarks as deliberately offensive and unnecessarily provocative. The Senedd’s rules give the Presiding Officer discretion over discriminatory or offensive language, and he noted he had previously rebuked Martin over comments about surgeons in the Welsh NHS gender service.