Banks shared the video with the caption, “Welsh lad?”.
Liz Saville Roberts, Plaid Cymru’s leader in Westminster, responded to Banks, saying: “Reform donor and 2025 candidate for the West of England mayoral election thinks black people can’t be Welsh.
“Racism is rife within Reform. We must stop them from being the largest party in the Senedd.”
Banks did not donate to Reform, but bankrolled the pro-Brexit campaign group Leave EU, and also donated to Nigel Farage’s old party UKIP.
A political source who contacted Nation Cymru said: “What Banks has stated is a hate crime. Plaid should really be reporting it to the police.”
It’s not the first time that Banks has been accused of making racist comments online.
Last year, during the West of England mayoral campaign, Banks stood by a tweet he posted in 2017, in which he called Bristol “little Somalia”.
Asked about the tweet by BristolLive, he said: “It’s not to say all Somalians are bad people, but in the same way that Romanians are at the forefront of criminal activities in most cities, certainly Somalians in Bristol are at the forefront of crime in Bristol.”
Banks also claimed that Home Office statistics showed that the Somalian community was 10 times more likely to commit serious crime than other communities.
However, the Home Office confirmed that crime conviction statistics did not record the nationality of those convicted.
In another post from January 2025, Banks referred to Tory MPs James Cleverly and Ben Obese-Jecty as “diversity hires”.
He wrote: “I am wondering why every British Army diversity hire ends up as a Tory MP. “Not so” Cleverly MP & now this bloke.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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On May 7, voters in Scotland will be electing new members of the Scottish Parliament. In Wales, it’s the Senedd up for election. And across England, more than 5,000 council seats are up for grabs, alongside six mayoralties.
The Greens are going into these elections with a record poll rating and a surge in membership. But what would success look like on 7 May?
What would a good night look like for the Greens in the Scottish Parliament election?
First things first: The Scottish Greens and the Green Party of England and Wales are two separate political parties. So here we are only talking about the Scottish Greens.
At the last Scottish Parliament election, the Greens won eight seats. Success for the Greens – given the current political context – would therefore require them to win more seats than that at an absolute minimum.
How many more than eight is the crucial question. Some opinion polls are currently putting the Greens in second place behind only the SNP. Others have the Greens further behind in third, fourth or even fifth place.
Similarly, the small number of MRP polls that have been carried out which provide projections as to how many seats each party is likely to win have significant variation when it comes to the Greens.
What would make a good night then? Moving into a double-digit seat tally is the bare minimum. On a very good night, the Greens would be looking to win something around the 15-20 mark, and becoming either the second or third largest party in the parliament.
What would a good night look like for the Greens in the Senedd election?
Now onto the Green Party of England and Wales.
At the last Senedd elections, the Greens didn’t win any seats. At face value then, winning even one this year could be seen as a good night for the party.
But a lot has changed since 2021.
One of the biggest things that has changed is the voting system for the elections. Previously, Senedd elections were held under a mixture of first past the post and proportional representation. From now on, the Senedd will be elected through a wholly proportional system.
This makes a big difference for the Greens. Getting over the line in first past the post elections is a tall order for smaller parties. Getting a decent proportion of the vote over a large geographical area is much more achievable.
The other thing that has changed – of course – is the Greens’ national poll rating and levels of public support.
A year ago, the Greens would have been delighted to win one or two seats in this year’s Senedd elections. Now, the Green Party is talking internally about being the party that holds the balance of power after the election and about potentially entering government in Wales.
As a result, a good night for the Greens would mean both the party itself winning a number of seats, but also on Plaid Cymru winning a sufficient number so that a Green/Plaid alliance could stop Reform from running Wales.
What would a good night look like for the Greens in the 2026 English local elections?
The first thing to note about the Green Party’s prospects in the 2026 local elections is their starting point. Over the more than 5,000 seats up for election, the Greens are only defending a tiny proportion – just 170. That means there is plenty of space for the party to make gains.
The second thing to note is where the elections are taking place. This year, every council seat in London is up for election, along with hundreds of others in major urban areas. Clearly, this is fertile territory for the Greens.
As such, a good night for the Greens would see the party make substantial gains. The party’s current position in the polls and emergence as a mass membership party for the first time in its history suggests that is likely to be the direction of travel.
But how many gains would constitute a ‘good night’ in this context?
An MRP poll conducted by More in Common has suggested the Greens could be on track to win as many as 1,000 seats. That would be a truly astonishing result. Anything even anywhere close to that would be unprecedented.
But certainly the Greens will be wanting to make several hundred gains if they are to illustrate that the Zack Polanski bounce can lead to electoral success and that the Gorton and Denton by-election win represents a wider trend rather than a one-off.
Where those gains are concentrated will also make a big difference to the perception of the Greens’ success. The Greens will be extremely keen to make major inroads and emerge as the largest party in multiple inner London Boroughs – places like Hackney, Lewisham and Lambeth.
What would a good night look like for the Greens in the 2026 mayoral elections?
There are six directly elected mayoralties up for grabs this year, and the Greens have a good chance of doing well in several of them.
The big prize is Hackney, where a huge campaigning effort is underway to get Zoë Garbett elected for the Greens. It’ll be Garbett’s third time running for the post, and she’s come second twice before.
Winning the Hackney mayor election would be the obvious sign of a good night for the Greens.
In the other mayoral contests – Lewisham and Newham are the obvious contests where the Green Party will be hopeful of putting in a good showing and to come at least a strong second.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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On May 7, voters in Scotland will be electing new members of the Scottish Parliament. In Wales, it’s the Senedd up for election. And across England, more than 5,000 council seats are up for grabs, alongside six mayoralties.
Labour are currently struggling in the polls, and go into these elections in difficult circumstances. So what would a good night for them look like on 7 May?
What would a good night look like for Labour in Scotland?
Labour won 22 seats at the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, coming third behind the SNP and the Tories.
A lot has changed since then – not least the collapse of the Tories and the rise of both Reform and the Greens.
While it appears likely that Labour will lose seats this May (most seat projections based on current opinion polls suggest they will), keeping those to a minimum will be key to Labour’s future in Scotland.
Because of the splintering of the vote on the right of politics between the Tories and Reform, there is also a possibility that Labour could emerge as the second largest party in the Scottish Parliament after the election, even if they lose seats.
As a result, a good night for Labour in Scotland would see them ending up in the high teens of seats and becoming the official opposition. As a bonus, if Labour can prevent the SNP winning an outright majority in the parliament, the amount of influence they have in Holyrood will also increase.
What would a good night look like for Labour in Wales?
In Wales, a ‘good night’ for Labour has to be understood in relative terms. What we’re looking at here is what is the ‘least worst’ outcome for Labour in the Senedd.
This year, the elections to the Senedd will be taking place under a wholly proportional system for the first time. That means making effective projections are challenging.
Nonetheless, all the polls appear to have coalesced on the conclusion that Labour will be losing control of the Senedd for the first time since devolution began in 1999. What they can’t agree on is whether Reform or Plaid Cymru will emerge as the largest party.
For Labour’s part, a good (or least bad!) night would likely look like winning around 20 per cent of the vote and picking up somewhere in the region of 15-20 seats. As a minimum, Labour will want to emerge as at least the third largest party in the Senedd, ahead of the Tories, Lib Dems and Greens.
What would a good night look like for Labour in the English local elections?
Labour are defending over 40 per cent of the more than 5,000 council seats up for election this year. Of these, a substantial portion of them are in London or in other major urban areas like Birmingham, Bradford, Coventry, Manchester, Sheffield and Wolverhampton.
According to every piece of evidence we have, it looks set to be a very bleak night for the red team this year.
More in Common have published an MRP poll which suggests Labour could lose three quarters of the seats they are defending this year. The big beneficiaries of the Labour collapse seem to be Reform and the Greens, with the Lib Dems also looking likely to make gains.
It’s therefore already assumed that Labour are on track for a tough innings this year. But what would a good (or again, least bad) night look like for them?
If Labour can avoid losing more than 1,000 seats, that would see them outperforming current projections. Similarly, the party will be keen to retain control of lots of key councils – particularly in London and the other big cities.
Speaking of London, a good night would see them retaining control (or at least being the largest party) in the vast majority of the boroughs it currently holds. Stopping the Green surge in inner London boroughs like Hackney, Lewisham and Lambeth would also be a key measure of success.
What would a good night look like for Labour in the 2026 mayoral elections?
The six mayoral elections taking place on 7 May are in Croydon, Hackney, Lewisham, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Watford.
Labour currently holds three of these – Hackney, Lewisham and Newham. Naturally, Labour will be very keen to hold on to all of these.
Presently, Hackney looks by far the most vulnerable, with the Greens running an intensive campaign there.
On a good night, Labour would hold on to Lewisham and Newham. On a very good night, Labour also clings on in Hackney too.
What would a good night look like for Labour’s long-term future?
Ultimately, all of these elections taken together will be a test of whether Labour is experiencing ‘mid-term blues’ or something more existential. Political parties in government often fare badly in local elections but are able to turn things around by the time of a general election.
In 1999, for example, Labour lost well over 1,000 seats in the local elections. But just two years later Tony Blair led Labour into a second consecutive landslide general election victory.
By contrast, the Tories had a disastrous set of local elections in 2023, and Rishi Sunak was booted out of office just a year later.
So, overall, Labour will be hoping that the upcoming elections represent the former rather than latter, and that any losses they suffer don’t represent an existential crisis for the party.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Left Foot Forward doesn't have the backing of big business or billionaires. We rely on the kind and generous support of ordinary people like you.
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An audience member on Question Time launched a scathing attack on Reform UK’s record in local government and criticised the party’s policies in Wales.
The man did not hold back, saying that Reform couldn’t run councils without descending into infighting and questioning why their only policy in Wales was to scrap the 20 mile an hour speed limit.
The audience member said: “Deform UK talk a fantastic game but I wouldn’t trust them with a knife and fork, frankly.”
He added: “They can’t run a council in Kent without arguing with each other. Their leader has just become our top cryptocurrency salesperson this week.”
The man then criticised Reform for one of their “top priorities” being to scrap the 20 mile an hour speed limit in Wales.
He said: “Now, my average speed on my way here tonight was seven miles an hour. So I don’t know if Dan Thomas [Reform’s leader in Wales] has ever driven in Cardiff, but of the top 100 issues that Wales faces, the 20 mile an hour speed limit is not one of them.”
Responding to the question, Thomas, Reform’s Welsh leader, said that due to Cardiff being “a very urban area” sometimes it may not be possible to drive over 20 miles an hour.
However, he added: “What we forget is that Wales is a very big place. There’s rural roads, there’s urban roads, and people need their cars to get around.”
Thomas said that the change to the “default” 20 miles an hour speed limit in residential and built-up areas, which was brought in in 2023, was opposed by almost 500,000 people in Wales.
“More people than voted Labour at the last Senedd election. There is a democratic mandate to reverse that,” he argued.
Jane Dodds, leader of the Welsh Lib Dems, challenged Thomas over Reform’s policy to scrap the 20 mile an hour speed limit.
“May I ask Reform UK about the lives that have been saved through reducing to 20 miles an hour”, Dodds said.
Thomas said: “We don’t know.”
Dodds swiftly quoted the figures.
“No the data and evidence is there. 100 lives have been saved and over 700 people have not gone into hospital because they have not been hurt,” she said.
She said that the collision rate in Wales has gone down 37% as opposed to England at 4%.
To applause from the audience, she concluded: “So 20 miles an hour is making a difference to saving lives and my view is if it saves one life it’s worth it.”
Thomas also said that Reform would cut 1p off every income tax band by scrapping net zero subsidies and ‘green levies’, which he claimed would save £145 million.
The Reform politician also said that the party would cut down the number of quangos in Wales, of which there are currently over 200, to save £135 million.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
Left Foot Forward doesn't have the backing of big business or billionaires. We rely on the kind and generous support of ordinary people like you.
You can support hard-hitting journalism that holds the right to account, provides a forum for debate among progressives, and covers the stories the rest of the media ignore. Donate today.
Plaid Cymru is on track to become the largest party in the Senedd elections on 7 May, and just six short of the 49 needed for a majority.
According to YouGov’s first MRP model poll for the Senedd elections, Plaid Cymru is projected to win 43 out of 96 seats in the Welsh Parliament, thereby ousting Labour from government in Wales.
The poll, conducted by YouGov, found that right now, the current voting intention of people for the Senedd is as follows:
Senedd voting intention:
Plaid Cymru – 33 (-4)
Reform UK – 27 (+4)
Welsh Labour – 13 (+3)
Wales Green Party – 12 (-1)
Welsh Conservatives – 7 (-3)
Welsh Liberal Democrats – 5 (n/c)
Others 4 – (+2)
Plaid, alongside the Greens or Labour, would command a majority in the Senedd. However, Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said in January that he would prefer to form a minority Plaid government over a coalition with another party.
According to the poll, Labour is expected to lose 32 seats, leaving them with 12 seats and a 23% drop in their vote share.
The current first minister, Labour’s Eluned Morgan, is expected to lose her seat.
Meanwhile, Reform UK, which won 1% of the vote in the 2021 Senedd elections, is projected to win 30 seats.
The Conservatives and the Lib Dems are facing potential wipeouts, with the former projected to hold on to just one seat, while the Lib Dems may not win any.
YouGov’s new MRP methodology uses data on how people plan to vote at a constituency level, which accounts for tactical voting, to estimate how a party is likely to perform nationally.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
Left Foot Forward doesn't have the backing of big business or billionaires. We rely on the kind and generous support of ordinary people like you.
You can support hard-hitting journalism that holds the right to account, provides a forum for debate among progressives, and covers the stories the rest of the media ignore. Donate today.
Hayward said that he had attended Plaid Cymru’s Senedd campaign launch last weekend, as well as the Welsh Labour and Welsh Conservatives’ launches this week.
However, he said Reform did not give him press accreditation to attend their event, which he said was “really concerning”, as a “key pillar in a democracy is that journalists can scrutinise those who are seeking power”.
He added that “Banning journalists is very Donald Trump”.
The Welsh Lib Dems said that the decision exposes Reform’s claims to support free speech as completely hollow and raises serious concerns about how the party treats scrutiny and democratic accountability.
This isn’t the first time that Reform has barred journalists from attending its events. In September 2024, Reform banned Byline Times, Desmog and former Observer journalist Carole Cadwalladr from attending its annual party conference.
In Nottinghamshire, Mick Barton, leader of the Reform-led council said its journalists would no longer engage with Nottinghamshire Live and its sister paper the Nottingham Post.
Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds MS said: “Reform love to posture as defenders of free speech, but the moment a journalist might ask difficult questions, they resort to censorship. It’s not free speech if you only allow those that agree with you to talk, ask questions or take part.
“Just weeks ago, they were threatening to ‘defund’ Bangor University in the name of ‘free speech’, yet now they are blocking journalists from attending their own manifesto launch. That is staggering hypocrisy.
“This isn’t about free speech at all, it’s about control. Reform wants the freedom to say whatever they like without being challenged, while trying to silence anyone who might hold them to account.
“If Reform is already trying to shut down scrutiny while they are still in opposition, people should be very worried about how they would behave if they ever gained real power.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
Left Foot Forward doesn't have the backing of big business or billionaires. We rely on the kind and generous support of ordinary people like you.
You can support hard-hitting journalism that holds the right to account, provides a forum for debate among progressives, and covers the stories the rest of the media ignore. Donate today.
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