Nigel Farage visits Welsh Assembly to greet new Brexit Party politicians

Credit: Nick Powell

Nigel Farage has visited Cardiff Bay to meet a number of assembly members who have defected to the Brexit Party.

The leader of the Eurosceptic party, which was announced in January of this year, met with Mark Reckless who announced he would be leaving the Welsh Conservatives group in the assembly to join the party earlier this week.

Mark Reckless joined the Conservative group in the Assembly without actually joining the party Credit: PA Images

ITV Wales' Political Editor Adrian Masters said Reckless will be the likely leader of the group in the Welsh Assembly.

Former UKIP members Mandy Jones, Caroline Jones and David Rowlands, who announced he would be leaving UKIP earlier in the day, along with Reckless, have formally requested to be recognised in the Welsh Assembly.

Mr Rowlands' departure means that UKIP will lose its status as an Assembly group, with guaranteed slots for questions and debates in the Senedd and places on committees.

UKIP's leader in the Assembly Gareth Bennett said he is "sorry and disappointed" at Mr Rowlands' decision.

The Brexit Party's application to form a group will now be considered by the Assembly's Presiding Officer or Llywydd, Elin Jones. There's some resistance in the Senedd to the idea.

Plaid Cymru said the application to form the group should not be allowed - saying the Senedd is "not a playground for Brexiteer chancers".

Labour claimed that the new group, if it's recognised, would stand for nothing more than its own short-term, narrow self-interest.