Gerwyn Price has become the first darts star to throw his weight behind the Reform Party.
But the Welshman was left devastated on Friday morning as his favoured candidate missed the bullseye in a local by-election.
Price, 40, had urged people to vote for Llyr Powell but the upstart candidate lost out to Plaid Cymru’s seasoned suit Lindsay Whittle.
The Welsh party took 47 per cent of the vote, Reform got 36 per cent, and Labour lost the seat for the first time ever with just 11 per cent of the haul.
‘Don’t just sit back and wait for the result, make a difference and vote Reform UK Wales,’ Price had written on Thursday afternoon. He also made a reference to the by-election in a later post.
The former PDC World Champion first hinted at his support for Reform back in July, when he briefly changed his Facebook profile picture to the party’s logo.
Gerwyn Price threw his weight behind the Reform Party but was left gutted hours later
Reform’s Caerphilly candidate Llyrs Powell (right) lost out to Plaid Cymru’s Lindsay Whittle (L)
Price had urged locals to get out and vote for Nigel Farage’s party in the hours before
A few days ago, he also urged people to get out and cote for Powell, saying it was ‘time for change’.
Price lives in Markham, around a 20-minute drive from Caerphilly in south-east Wales, in a house which contains the ‘man cave of dreams’.
His basement features a snooker table, pool table, and cinema screen, and of course a darts board and framed memorabilia from throughout his career.
Darts stars are not known for making extended political commentary but Price might be at loggerheads with Michael van Gerwen if they have a chinwag on the subject.
That’s because the Dutchman declared Brexit to be ‘Brex-s***’ back in 2019 – a view which wouldn’t chime with the pro-UK independence firebrand Nigel Farage.
After winning his third PDC World Championship title, he said: ‘I hope I’m going to get a visa. It’s horrible isn’t it? Did you vote for Brexit? Brex-shit.
‘I don’t like it. Look at the pound and the euro. I get everything paid in pounds so just have a look how much it dropped.
‘Let’s say it dropped by 10%, that’s cost me 10% of my prize money straight away. So that’s quite a lot of money. But it’s not only that. It’s horrible.’
