Anti-radar campaigners accuse Pembrokeshire MP of "getting into bed with Trump"

Anti space-wars radar campaigners have challenged Pembrokeshire MP Henry Tufnell to a public debate following social media spat, where they have accused the Labour politician of ‘getting into bed with Trump’

Following a spate of social media exchanges MP for Mid and South Pembrokeshire, Tufnell recently released a video on social media complaining that campaigners PARC Against DARC had put out a meme depicting him as US president Donald Trump’s ‘puppy-dog’

The campaign group, established in 2024 to oppose the US military’s proposed DARC radar array in Pembrokeshire, has now hit back calling for a face-to-face showdown with Tufnell, citing his abject lack of understanding around the DARC radar issue.

Earlier this year, Tufnell backed the Military of Defence’s proposals to develop the project at Cawdor Barracks, Brawdy.

The proposal would include hosting a network of ground based radars which would track objects in high Earth orbit. It would use 27 large parabolic dishes to monitor satellites and debris.

Tufnell welcomed the proposals, calling it a ‘once-in-a-generation opportunity for the County’ stating: “Our community here in Pembrokeshire has always played a pivotal role in the UK’s defence and the DARC project represents the next chapter in our proud heritage.

“I am working closely with MoD officials to ensure that the views and concerns of local residents are fully heard and addressed. It is vital that any environmental and public health concerns are addressed, and the project must deliver genuine, tangible benefits for local workers and the wider community.

“The UK Government is resolute on using defence to keep our country safe and revitalise the industrial heartlands of our United Kingdom.”

This isn't the first time that Tufnell and the anti space-wars campaign have come to blows. At a recent demonstration outside County Hall in Haverfordwest, the home of Pembrokeshire County Council, organised to oppose the planning application, the campaigners held up masks depicting Tufnell’s face which they had called ‘Toffsicles’.

The campaigners were joined by actor and Game of Thrones star Jerome Flynn who resides in Pembrokeshire.

The campaign criticised his failure to engage with what it describes as the thousands of people who have written to him asking for dialogue around their grave concerns about the proposed military radar.

The timing is also poignant as the DARC radar planning application has now been ‘called in’ to Welsh Government under Plaid Cymru who have made clear their party’s opposition to the radar.

Campaigners, however, have hit back, releasing a statement as follows: “Following reports of hundreds of unanswered letters, we call on Henry Tufnell MP to meet with the PARC Against DARC campaign and local residents, and to once and for all address our pressing concerns.

“Though previous MPs in Pembrokeshire were unpopular, at least they sometimes did their homework. Tufnell constantly sounds like he knows nothing about one of the most serious and widely opposed proposals our county has ever faced. He doesn’t even know that because DARC necessitates the evacuation of Cawdor Barracks in Brawdy, it would lead to a net loss of hundreds of jobs.

“He hasn’t read the 750,000 word planning application, which states that even the claimed jobs, which would all be for US personnel anyway, are more like around 20-40.

“We imagine he would keep lying about the jobs anyway even if he did. And he certainly hasn’t listened to a single constituent’s email, 1,121 planning objections to only one in favour, a massive public petition, the opposition of dozens of elected politicians on both sides of the border, or multiple major protests. Instead, he is in a Trump fanclub of one.”

“Tufnell’s grip of the facts gets even worse though. He doesn’t even seem to realise that after all the bluster from the MOD about DARC meeting radiation regulations, DARC has not even been demonstrated to meet ICNIRP requirements specifically at all, and researchers have serious concerns that those regulations, which permit radiation hundreds of times more powerful than in other countries, are toothless anyway.

“Six of the massive 27 radar dishes that the National Parks and Natural Resources Wales have objected to and both agree would cause huge environmental damage transmit radiation of enormous power outputs, and the MOD has to this day done absolutely nothing to robustly alleviate local resident’s concerns about radiation that has proven to be capable of serious harm in over 4,000 studies. It’s a major reason why many have been considering abandoning their homes and lives.

“Tufnell and his kids should be fine at the other end of Pembrokeshire, but we doubt he would be moving to the St Davids peninsula in a hurry, and it’s clear he aggressively doesn’t care about the people who live here.”

Campaigners state that the stage is now set not only for a ‘Wales vs Westminster’ showdown over the planning consent for the project, but now the ‘Pembrokeshire People vs Tufnell’ too.