Three Reform candidates quit in one Welsh constituency
BBCIt is unclear who will represent Reform in the Senedd constituency covering Bridgend and the Vale of Glamorgan, after three of its six election candidates quit.
A Reform source confirmed that Derek Roberts, who was the party's second on the list in Pen-y-Bont Bro Morgannwg, has stood down for "personal reasons" that have not been made public.
The party's sixth candidate, Owain Clatworthy, has left in protest at the selection process. Both decisions emerged after Corey Edwards, the first candidate on the list, stood down last week after a photo appeared to show him performing a Nazi salute.
Reform told the BBC it would present a full list for the election, taking place on 7 May.
The party has not announced who will replace the three. Nominations close on 9 April.
In total the party has lost four candidates across Wales in one week - while two had pulled out before Reform's lists were published.
As first and second on the list, Corey Edwards and Derek Roberts had the best chance of being elected for their party in the constituency.
A Reform source said that Roberts, who is ex-military, had "stepped back for personal reasons but remains an active champion for veterans in his community".
Owain ClatworthyOwain Clatworthy was selected for sixth place on the list in Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg, and had been elected as a councillor in Bridgend last year.
But he announced he was leaving Reform in a post on social media, telling readers that "recent events, including poor internal decision making, a lack of discipline and serious concerns around candidate selection, have made it clear to me that Reform UK is no longer operating in a way that reflects the standards I believe the public deserve".
He accused the party of selecting individuals "with little or no connection to the communities they seek to represent".
Speaking to BBC Wales, Clatworthy said: "The country is in a mess and it's easy to complain and I thought Reform were the answer.
"From day one, up until now, the way I have been treated, and members and other councillors have been treated by the leadership team, is not good."
He alleged that the party had poorly vetted candidates - adding the picture of Edwards "really did it for me. I can't support a party that would be happy to back something like that".
"It sends the wrong message and it became a distraction," he said, adding that he had not cared about his sixth place selection and had been happy to support the party.
Nigel Farage had defended Edwards over the salute photograph, claiming that he had been impersonating Basil Fawlty. Edwards quit the next day.
Under the new voting system parties are required to table lists of candidates for each of the Senedd's 16 constituencies.
While candidates listed lower than third place are less likely to get elected, parties still need at least six candidates on each constituency list in order to be allowed to spend up to the full limit on the campaign.
Another Reform candidate, Patrick Benham-Crosswell, announced he had quit last week. The fourth placed candidate in Gŵyr Abertawe said on Facebook that Reform's "professionalisation of the party has led it to take its members and candidates for granted".
His resignation came after two other candidates pulled out of the running for the Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr constituency, the day before Reform announced its official list of candidates.
One of them, Andrew Barry, said he would also resign from the party in a row over other candidates being "parachuted in" to his area.
A separate source said that local Reform branches "were in turmoil".
In February Torfaen Reform councillor Jason O'Connell, who has since been named as the party's number one candidate in Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr for the Senedd election, described the party's vetting process as "brutal" and "intrusive".
He told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement programme: "Social media now has been around for 20-plus years, there's a lot of history there.
"We've turned down some genuinely good people just on the off chance that they might have said something slightly off the wall 10, 20 years ago.
"We've lost that ability to bring them in because, as I said, digital is forever."
It is expected that all major parties will contest Pen-y-Bont Bro Morgannwg. Full lists of candidates are expected to be announced after close of nominations.
