Senior serving Tory MS defects and joins Reform

A SERVING Conservative Senedd member has announced she is joining Reform UK.

- CATHY OWEN & RUTH MOSALSKI

Laura Anne Jones, the Senedd member for South East Wales, has said that having been a member for 31 years, the Conservative Party is no longer “recognisable” to her.

She could now become the Senedd’s first Reform member. Ms Jones, a Senedd member since July 2020, previously held the same seat as an Assembly Member in the National Assembly for Wales between 2003 and 2007.

She made the announcement at a press conference with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage at the Royal Welsh show.

She told journalists she had not informed her party and was making the announcement without telling the group leader in Wales, Darren Millar.

Ms Jones said “Wales needs Reform” and that she now felt “part of the solution, not the problem”.

“I am here today because the Conservatives are not listening to members,” she said, adding: “The Conservative Party has forgotten how to be conservative.”

Mr Farage told journalists he still did not know who the leader in Wales would be, adding “all in good time”. He said Ms Jones brought “conviction, passion and she knows how it works”.