Joe Martin (Welsh politician)

Martin attended the University of Exeter. During his time at the University of Exeter, he changed degree subjects frequently, doing History for his first year, then Arabic and Theology with History in his second, and Middle Eastern studies and Theology with History in his third. He then worked in Finance at Lloyds Bank and other financial businesses.^[2]

In August 2025, Martin was Reform UK's candidate in a council by-election in the Grangetown ward. He came 4th, with 15% of the vote.^[3]

In March 2026, Martin was announced as the lead candidate on Reform UK Wales's list in the Caerdydd Penarth constituency, ahead of former leader of the Wales Brexit Party, Mark Reckless.^[4] He was successfully elected, as the only Reform MS for Caerdydd Penarth.^[5]

On 16 June 2026 Martin was accused of racism and was rebuked by the Llywydd of the Senedd, Huw Irranca Davies, following a speech in which he claimed attacks from Sudanese asylum seekers were "inevitable".^[6] The following day, Martin made another speech in which he criticised the Welsh government's "stupid" and "pointless" international spending and drew attention to the rate of illiteracy in Wales's "underfunded" education system (joking that he had tried to ask some Welsh students for their opinion but had received no response, since they could not read).^[7] The speech prompted members of Plaid Cymru, Labour and the Green Party to walk out of Y Siambr in protest. Plaid Cymru's Zaynub Akbar could be heard to state, "I'm going to leave this because I don't accept any of this and I don't want to be a part of it." The speech was again rebuked by the Llywydd.^[8]