Yuliia Bond manages two jobs, raises two children, and is studying at university. Last autumn, she also found time to confront Reform UK when it sought to secure the Caerphilly byelection.
Bond, a Ukrainian refugee who has made a home in south Wales, stated she was unable to remain silent as Reform aimed to gain the parliamentary seat in the Senedd, the parliament of Wales.
“Members of our Ukrainian community raised their voices,” Bond remarked. “We confronted the disinformation because we didn’t want our neighbours from being misled into resenting us. I hoped to avoid people becoming hostile to us because of lies. So I spoke up and others followed suit.
“Reform UK attempted to generate fear and division with tactics used not only in the UK, but by right-wing political parties across Europe and around the world. The messages they used in Caerphilly seemed far from local. They felt imported – as if someone copied a script from another country and dropped it through our doors.”
A Confident Campaign Meets Community Resistance
The party, led by Nigel Farage, was confident it could claim victory in the byelection, especially as Labour, the historically strong party in Wales for a century, appears to be declining rapidly. An energetic campaign by the Welsh nationalists, Plaid Cymru – and individuals such as Bond – successfully blocked the rightwing party.
“Their biggest mistake was presuming that people here have no critical thinking,” Bond argued. “They thought nobody would check the facts. They believed that refugees are not just in need, but somehow uninformed. That is not true. We may have escaped a war, but we are not stupid. We understand policies.”
One of Reform’s central claims was that the Welsh government’s sanctuary nation scheme showed both it and Plaid supported a “large-scale immigration agenda” and that “asylum seekers” were receiving “preferential treatment”. The claim was unfounded – over 80% of the sanctuary funds had been spent on supporting Ukrainian refugees.
Bond noted: “When I saw the campaign literature, all I could see was a blatant attempt to divide people, to blame a small group, and stoke hate in a place that had been welcoming to us.
“It failed in Caerphilly because the Ukrainian community and refugees from different backgrounds are not strangers. We are integrated into the community. People are familiar with us.
“They see us at school gates, in shops, at work, volunteering. They know what we contribute. The portrayal in the leaflet simply didn’t match reality. Most residents could sense that something was off. It felt like manipulation, not truth.”
The Aftermath and Lasting Lessons
Bond spoke in the “gratitude orchard” in Caerphilly, planted by members of the Ukrainian community as a token of appreciation for the warm welcome they have received.
She said the arrival of Reform had placed a burden on Ukrainian people in the area. “Vulnerable people should not have to carry this burden. Yet, during the election, we had to raise our voices first. Only later did backing come – from local residents, politicians from various parties, and local media.”
There are full Senedd elections in May when Reform hopes to become the largest party in Wales.
Bond said people opposing Reform in Wales in May and in other elections across the UK had to challenge the party’s messages swiftly and with conviction.
“As a Ukrainian, I know how harmful disinformation can be. The war in Ukraine did not start with weapons. It started with disinformation, biased information and lies that paved the way for violence.
“Disinformation must be challenged early, strongly and unambiguously, because hate travels faster than facts. The two months of that byelection were truly exhausting. We just had to survive it. But we endured together, and that is why the hate campaign was unsuccessful in Caerphilly.”
The Winning Campaign’s Viewpoint
For Lindsay Whittle, the victorious Plaid candidate, the aftermath the byelection was a blur. Public recognition was immense.
Whittle said both Reform campaigners and their opponents had believed the party might win decisively. She said: “The thought was that they’d spend obscene amounts of money and defeat us.”
So how did they stop the juggernaut? One reason, Whittle thinks, is that Plaid ran an positive, optimistic campaign. “Don’t attack anyone personally because people don’t like that. Keep the message constructive. Try and unite people.
“People in Caerphilly have friends of different nationalities and they don’t like people threatening their friends. Voters understand that without certain people coming to this country, you’re not going to have an NHS or social care. I think Reform underestimated the people of Caerphilly.”
While Whittle featured on the front pages, an fierce grassroots campaign was under way in the background. Committed party members knocked on thousands of doors.
“We think it was the most important byelection we’ve ever fought,” one campaigner said. The victory was attributed to good policies – and people who believe in them deeply.
Local Observations and Academic Analysis
A local editor was taken aback at how polarising the campaign was. “We had communities clashing with each other, campaign posters torn down, heated debates online. I was raised in this area and I know everyone’s lovely so to see that side come out was a surprise.”
The decisive moment is believed to have been a televised debate when an audience member challenged the Reform candidate, stating that people with family members not born in the UK did not feel welcome since Reform had arrived.
“That was someone from our community who had a mixed race family clearly explaining the impact all this rhetoric had,” the editor said. “Caerphilly may not be the most multicultural of places but we’ve always been open to people from overseas. That was the turning point.”
A politics lecturer and native of the area provided a particular perspective on the byelection.
He said Plaid was remarkably successful in presenting the election as a straight two-horse race – but this will be harder at the Senedd elections in May when a new proportional system is introduced.
“It tended to be somewhat uninformed or, at times, patronising. But Caerphilly isn’t some post-industrial wasteland passively absorbing whatever political winds blow from England – it has its own political traditions and, like Wales more broadly, it has its own character and can’t simply be interpreted through the lens of what is happening in England. It was gratifying to see my home town defy those simplistic assumptions.”
