Huw Irranca-Davies became the Senedd's presiding officer following the May election
A senior Reform politician says a no-confidence vote in the Senedd's presiding officer is "not off the table", after a party member was banned for claiming white people are being "replaced".
Llŷr Powell, Reform's chief whip in Cardiff Bay, said his colleague Joe Martin had the right to raise "legitimate concerns" that were being "infringed upon".
Martin was told he would not be called to speak in the Welsh Parliament until he apologised for the remarks made on Tuesday, which Presiding Officer Huw Irranca-Davies called "unnecessarily provocative and deliberately offensive".
Reform withdrew from most Senedd proceedings on Wednesday in response.
Reform boycotts Senedd after member banned for saying white people are being replaced
Powell, who as chief whip enforces party discipline in the Senedd's Reform group, was asked on BBC Radio Wales Breakfast if his party would put forward a no confidence vote in Irranca-Davies.
He said: "I'm not going to say that we're going to do that now, but what I would say it's not off the table right now because freedom of speech and the right of members to raise legitimate concerns should be the main priority.
"And for us, right now, we see that as being infringed upon."
Powell denied Martin had made any connection to a far-right conspiracy theory that the white population was being deliberately replaced by the immigration of other ethnic groups.
"Joe was asking a legitimate question based on demographic changes," Powell said.
"The idea that he was framing some far-right theory is false.
"He was talking about legitimate concerns that is out there for data for all to see."
Reform's Joe Martin, party leader Helen Jenner and chief whip Llŷr Powell announced the boycott on the Senedd's steps on Wednesday
During business questions on Tuesday, Martin had asked Welsh government minister Heledd Fychan for a "statement from your government on the demographic replacement of white British people taking place in the UK".
"Mass immigration and differing birth rates mean that, in just 37 years' time, in 2063, we will be a minority in our own country," he said.
Fychan had asked the deputy presiding officer, who had been chairing the session, whether the question broke Senedd rules.
Irranca-Davies later called Martin's statement "unnecessarily provocative and deliberately offensive" and "clearly discriminatory" when he issued the speaking ban.
He said that unless Martin apologised to the Senedd chamber "we will not be calling him to speak".
Aliya Mohammed, chief executive of the charity Race Equality First, criticised Martin on Wednesday, saying "the idea that white people are being 'replaced' is linked to a conspiracy theory that creates division and wrongly portrays people from minority ethnic backgrounds as a threat".
Martin, a Member of the Senedd (MS) representing Caerdydd Penarth, was accused by Plaid Cymru of dangerous rhetoric in June when he claimed attacks from Sudanese asylum seekers were inevitable.
The next day MSs walked out during a speech where Martin joked that Welsh students were unable to read, and Indian nurses were taking Welsh jobs.
He was later accused by the presiding officer of making offensive remarks in a debate about the crisis-hit Welsh Gender Service.
