The Reform UK candidate who stood in Torfaen for the general election says he hopes to stand for the party in the 2026 Senedd elections.
I spoke to Ian Williams twice in the early hours of Friday 5 July at Pontypool leisure centre. Once about an hour before he found out his party had come second in Torfaen, and again shortly after the result was announced.
His tone was the same in both conversations, a bit disappointed but looking forward to future elections.
3am- after the Torfaen result
At 3am, nine minutes after hearing the result he said: “I’m disappointed at losing because I don’t like to lose but I congratulate my Labour opponent but I glorify in the fact he didn’t get as many votes as he did in the last election [2019 15,476 and 2024 15,176].
“It was a good clean fight.
“I can’t say I lost because it was a good result for Reform UK.
“This is the first stage of six-year engagement to win the next election. I thank all the other candidates for being kind and nice, we don’t get any nastiness together. We’re all valley people at the end of the day.”
1.39am- before the Torfaen result
At 1.39am I asked him a few questions just outside the room where the candidates sit watching a big screen showing the results come in from across the UK.
He said: “I think the campaign has gone brilliantly actually as we’ve built a really solid team to go forward.
“We’re only at stage one of our conversion over six years. We know Nigel [Farage} is going to democratise the Party. It’s not going to be a limited company.
“We’ve gained about 60 members in Torfaen. We’re now coming up to about 350/ 360 members for us in Torfaen. And I think we’ll increase that.
“I’m sad. I would’ve loved to have come first but let’s be realistic we’re fighting against a big party machine.
“But there is another fight coming up. It’s called the Senedd. And I worked there for five years. I’ll be standing for that hopefully, so I think we’re on solid ground for the new election system and I’m sure we’ll have quite a lot seats right across Wales.
“We’ve built some good candidates. Yes, there’s been some idiots. We’ve got them in all parties but ours always seem to come to the fore at the wrong times.
“I’ve enjoyed it. Whether I’ll be standing at the next election [General Election), my age (79) is probably going to be against me. But I’ve enjoyed it”
He thanked Torfaen Council for doing a “good job” in running the election.
Torfaen 2024 general election result
Nick Thomas-Symonds, Welsh Labour, won the Torfaen seat in the 2024 General Election.
The full result of this morning’s election count for Torfaen:
- Welsh Labour- Nick Thomas-Symonds- 15,176
- Reform UK- Ian Williams- 7,854
- Welsh Conservative Party- Nathan Edmunds- 5,737
- Plaid Cymru- Matthew Jones- 2,571
- The Green Party- Philip Davies- 1,705
- Welsh Liberal Democrats- Brendan Roberts- 1,644
- Independent- Lee Dunning- 881
- Heritage Party- Nikki Brooke- 137