The new face of Reform in Wales faces a spell on the sidelines

Laura Anne Jones was announced as a Reform defector to much fanfare at the Royal Welsh agricultural show earlier this year as she crossed the floor of the Senedd from the Conservatives.

The move by the MS for South Wales East made her Reform’s first member of the Welsh parliament, a frontrunner to become the party’s leader in Wales and a likely candidate for first minister in next year’s election.

She’s certainly making a splash in true Reform style – today being recommended for a two-week suspension from the Senedd following a lengthy investigation into offensive comments by its standards commissioner.

Last year, it emerged that Jones, then still a Tory, had used a racist slur about Chinese people in a WhatsApp group chat, saying “No chinky spies for me!” in an exchange about TikTok.

Suggested Reading

Now Farage turns his fire on… David Lloyd George

Rats in a Sack

Today, the Senedd’s standards committee said “inappropriate and offensive comments have no place in our Senedd or society more widely”. Jones was cleared of separate complaints relating to making false expenses claims and unfair dismissal.

The standards commissioner, Douglas Bain, also found that in a WhatsApp exchange with a former employee in 2023, Jones referred to an ex-staffer as “a wanker” and a “bitter, twisted, useless person”.

She wrote: “I tried to be so understanding. I even asked if he had ADHD or something and if he needed extra support… cos something isn’t right with him!?”. What a charmer!

The Senedd will vote on the recommendation of a 14-day ban next week. Jones has apologised for her “regrettable comments” in a “private message” but welcomed being “cleared of any wrongdoing in relation to the malicious accusation of fraudulent activity”.

When Jones made the leap to Reform in the summer, she said it was because the Tories were no longer “the party that I joined over three decades ago”. Sounds like she’s found the perfect home for herself!