REFORM UK Shadow Minister for Food, Farming and Rural Affairs Laura Anne Jones MS is calling on the Welsh Government to treat the escalating wildfire crisis across Wales as a national emergency, provide immediate financial support for affected farmers and landowners, and formally request Armed Forces assistance through Military Aid to the Civil Authorities (MACA).

Ms Jones said:

“While the Welsh Government procrastinates, Wales burns. Our firefighters and farmers have been battling these fires for weeks, they are exhausted, grazing land has been devastated and wildlife habitats destroyed.

“Farmers whose land has been destroyed need emergency financial support now,” she continued. “The Government’s announcement of grants to help fund things like fire ponds and other preventative measures in the future is welcome, but it does absolutely nothing for farmers and landowners who have already lost grazing and face years of recovery. They cannot pay tomorrow’s bills with the promise of a grant for future resilience.

“We also need every possible resource on the table. I’ve written to the Welsh Government and they should urgently submit a MACA request for Armed Forces support to help our exhausted emergency services and communities wherever military personnel, equipment or logistical expertise can make a difference. At the same time, the authorities must come down like a tonne of bricks on anyone deliberately starting fires. The utterly moronic TikTok arson trend must be investigated as part of the response to these outbreaks, and anyone caught deliberately setting fires during these conditions should face the severest possible consequences.”

Ms Jones concluded, saying:

“Bad government policy has helped create the conditions for these fires to spread. Restrictions on controlled burning, reduced upland grazing and the failure to manage combustible vegetation have left our countryside like a tinderbox. Ministers were warned. They must now answer for it.”