Reform's Nigel Farage and Dan Thomas differ on publishing manifesto costs
Matthew Horwood/Getty ImagesReform has challenged other parties to publish how much their Senedd election pledges cost when Nigel Farage visited Merthyr Tydfil on Thursday.
But party representatives had to clarify that Reform will publish its own costings after Welsh leader Dan Thomas said they would hold off without other parties agreeing to explain their sums.
Farage had said they would regardless - it is the second time that the two party leaders have appeared to take a different approach to the issue after their manifesto launch in March.
No other party has published, or has promised to publish, full costings.
Voters go to the polls to elect 96 Members of the Senedd on 7 May - in exactly three weeks time.
Costings are where a party lists how much each policy it promises in a manifesto - a list of election promises to voters.
Although parties will often claim their policies are costed, complete lists of prices are harder to come by.
On Thursday Welsh Labour's Eluned Morgan accused her rivals in Plaid Cymru of planning childcare plans that were "undeliverable" and risked industrial action in public service.
Reform promised to cut 1p off every band of income tax when it launched its manifesto last month.
At the time the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank said that tax cuts "would likely necessitate cuts in at least some services used by households".
Parties have been repeatedly warned that the next Welsh government will face a different financial situation and may struggle to fund new plans without making cuts or raising funds through tax.
In March, Thomas said Reform would publish the figures following "a discussion internally".
He made the promise on the same day he said that they would not publish them, despite Farage having promised a "full list of costings" in separate interviews.
The respected IFS think tank was "looking at our homework and they'll mark it out of 10", he said.
Farage on Thursday said Reform was prepared to publish "everything" the IFS had sent them back "if other parties were prepared to do the same".
His position appeared to change as the interview continued, later saying the costings would be published regardless of what other parties do.
Asked about the lack of a caveat back in March, he added: "We'd like first to challenge the other parties to match that.
"I'm not saying we won't."
He insisted he had not changed his tune.
"We will publish it but I'm going to challenge the others to do it as well."
Farage said they would "embarrass" the other parties.
"I don't see the change, am I missing something?"
In a later interview at the same event, Thomas appeared to more firmly rule out publishing the document if other parties do not.
He said: "They will be published, subject to the other parties' agreement of publishing theirs.
"So we're challenging the other leaders to publish their costings.
"The caveat is there now," he said, admitting they had changed their position "slightly".
"Nothing wrong with that," he said, adding there was nothing in the IFS analysis that had worried them.
Matthew Horwood/Getty ImagesAfter Thomas's interview, BBC Wales was told by a Reform source that Dan Thomas had misspoke when he said that publishing costings was contingent on others doing the same and the costings will be published.
Farage went on a campaign walk-about in Merthyr Tydfil on Thursday morning, with some in the valleys town centre stopping him for selfies.
It was the first time he had visited Wales since the manifesto launch in Newport in March.
Farage brushed off recent rows over selections, after party members resigned or refused offers of places on candidate lists.
He claimed the party had "one candidate vetting problem - one out of 96" - appearing to refer to the resignation of Corey Edwards who had been photographed appearing to do a nazi salute.
"People throw themselves into politics, they're ambitious, they all assume they're going to get into winnable positions and some people who were lower on the list didn't like their positions.
"That's life, [its] not an issue. They weren't in winnable positions."
He claimed that Plaid Cymru had a "list as long as your arm of candidates who've said very embarrassing or bad things".
Farage also said it was "wrong" for Eluned Morgan to call for a radar system project in Pembrokeshire to be scrapped over Donald Trump.
"It's 'let's say no to the Americans, we don't like Donald Trump' – well, think longer term than that, he isn't going to be there in two years' time, it'll be somebody else," he said.
Labour and Plaid compete over childcare
Meanwhile, Welsh Labour leader Eluned Morgan said her party has fully costed a £100m plan to extend childcare to babies aged nine-months-old and create an extra 20,000 childcare spaces over the next Senedd term.
She said extra cash from the UK government will help fund the schemes and she rejected Plaid Cymru's plans as "undeliverable".
Plaid are promising the "most comprehensive childcare offer in the UK" at a cost of an additional £400m a year by 2030-31.
Welsh Labour's childcare policy would cost an extra £100m per annum by the end of next parliament, as the Flying Start childcare offer is extended to those nine months to three-years old, before the current childcare offer to three and four-year-olds kicks in.
Morgan said: "There will be extra money coming in in future.
"We've already ear marked money for things like increasing the amount of money that we can pay public sector workers, our people working in the NHS, the teachers, the cleaners, the bin men, all of those people will expect a pay rise."
"None of that has been costed in Plaid Cymru's proposals, so they will see a pay freeze for years and imagine what that could look like in terms of industrial action in future."
A Plaid spokesperson said: "Plaid Cymru's plans to deliver the most generous childcare offer in the UK is fully costed and would mean free childcare for all children nine months to four years - no exceptions and no exclusions."
Delyth Jewell, the party's deputy leader, said there would be "additional headroom" coming from the UK government's spring statement of £300m that would pay for the first phase of the scheme.
She said Reform's call for parties to publish costings was "trying to show... anything that will deflect from the fact that there is a £1bn black hole from their plans. We have no idea how any of that would be financed. I'll believe it when I actually see it from them."
Labour is promising to extend the childcare offer in Flying Start areas - which offers two years olds 12.5 hours of childcare a week - to babies aged nine-months.
Plaid says it wants to offer at least 20 hours a week for all children aged nine-months to four-years-old for 48 weeks a year, while maintaining the existing offer of 30 hours for children aged three to four whose parents are in work, education or training.
'Simply fantasy' to cut taxes and maintain services
The Welsh Liberal Democrat's Cadan ap Tomos said it was "simply fantasy" to maintain public services while cutting taxes.
"We have been really upfront and honest with people and saying that our key pledge of making sure that we're investing more in social care to reduce waiting times in NHS, get people out of hospital, back into their homes and their communities, is going to cost money.
"If we need to raise income tax to pay for it, then that's absolutely what we'll do."
He declined to explain how the party would fund its expansion in childcare - the party is promising 30 hours a week from nine-months to four-years-old for 48 weeks a year.
The IFS has estimated this would cost £600m.
"I think that's something that we'll have to look at when we get into the place of if we're influencing the next Welsh government, when we were able to look under the hood and see what conditions the budgets are in," he said.
Welsh Green Party leader Anthony Slaughter said when Farage said he would release his costings "he made no mention of other parties doing it, so I'm not going to held to any moral blackmail by Nigel Farage".
"We'll publish the costings of the things that we've got when people ask for things, like the bus fares, childcare, free school meals. We've got those."
He questioned how parties could make a "four year financial plan in a world of Trump and Putin".
Slaughter added that the party has ruled out a rise in income tax "under the current devolution settlement we've got".
Conservative' shadow chancellor Mel Stride was campaigning in Llandudno, Conwy, on Thursday.
"We're the only party there that has got a good, clear, solid plan for rejuvenating Wales," he said. "We've had 27 years of failed Labour government here, we've got others out there, particularly Reform, with all sorts of fantasy ideas over what they're going to deliver and no plan to actually back that up."
He declined to answer if the Tories would support Reform to lead the next Welsh government.
He said: "Well, I'm not going to get drawn into that. What I'm here to talk about is that we are fighting for every single vote."
