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.
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 deliverable and costed, actual lists of prices are harder to come by.
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".
