Sarah Cooper-Lesadd, the Member of the Senedd who left Reform UK for Plaid Cymru in September 2026, has said the party responds to criticism the way an abuser deflects blame, as she described a culture of misogyny she says she personally experienced. Reform UK has dismissed her claims as ‘outright fabrications’, calling on her to resign her seat, as reported by BBC News.
The remarks come days before an ITV undercover documentary, filmed over a 12-month period with Reform candidates and supporters, is due to broadcast on ITV1 and ITVX on 18 October at 22:20. Reform UK has said all those featured in the programme are under investigation, with some having resigned and others suspended. The party has also accused ITV of using ‘extreme methods of deception’ during the investigation, according to BBC News.
Cooper-Lesadd’s claims of sexism within Reform
In an interview with BBC-produced Newyddion S4C, Cooper-Lesadd said she was ‘not surprised’ by the wider allegations of sexism and misogyny now being levelled at the party, saying she had been on the ‘receiving end’ of such behaviour herself as a Reform member. She pointed to two incidents involving a prominent party member. In the first, she alleged that individual told her she ‘looked like a screamer’ at a political rally. In the second, she said the same person told her she ‘did not need to be elected as she could be replaced by a 60-year-old man.’
Cooper-Lesadd said the broader culture within the party meant she ‘did not feel empowered to report’ these incidents, and believed such complaints ‘would not have been taken seriously’ by Reform.
When pressed on whether critics of Reform were simply pushing a ‘woke agenda’, as some supporters have suggested, she rejected the framing. ‘Reform’s playbook is if they can’t defend the indefensible, they turn it on the person actually finding and making the allegations,’ she said. She likened that approach to the behaviour of an abuser in a domestic abuse relationship, adding: ‘I think ultimately Reform needs to play within the rules other parties play by.’
Reform’s denial and the ITV documentary
Reform UK rejected her account entirely. The party said her comments were ‘outright fabrications from an individual who lied her way into Welsh Parliament’. ‘If Ms Cooper-Lesadd had an ounce of integrity or respect for her office, she would resign immediately and return the seat to a Reform representative. Instead, she invents wild stories to smear her former colleagues. The fact the media is taking these fantasies seriously without a shred of evidence is frankly astonishing.’
The party’s response to Cooper-Lesadd comes as it also faces scrutiny over the ITV Exposure documentary, titled ‘Undercover: A Year in Reform’. ITV News reported that its reporters went undercover alongside Reform candidates and councillors in England and Wales, covering the May local elections and four separate by-election campaigns across 2025 and 2026, recording a number of racist and sexist comments. BBC News reported that the filming involved eight figures in Reform, though it noted it did not know how many ITV had spoken to in total.
Reform said it had ‘improved and prioritised its vetting procedures’ but acknowledged that ‘from time to time, a handful of individuals who do not share our values will initially make it through vetting’, adding that ‘this is the same for all organisations’.
Background: the defection
Cooper-Lesadd was elected as the MS for Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg in the May 2026 Senedd election under the Reform banner, before defecting to Plaid Cymru in September 2026. In September 2026, ITV News Wales reported she had served as Reform UK Wales’ Shadow Minister for Children, Young People and Skills. In the same month, BBC News reported that her defection left Reform with 33 Senedd seats, while Plaid Cymru (which won May’s Senedd election) held 44. In September 2026, BBC News also reported that Reform had said it had ‘planned to expel’ her for supporting Welsh independence before the defection was announced.
Reform UK has said Cooper-Lesadd should resign her seat immediately rather than remain as a Plaid Cymru member representing a constituency she won for Reform.