Defector to Reform has some worrying news for Labour...

LABOUR is heading for humiliation next year when it will fail to be the biggest party in Wales for the first time in more than a century, a Conservative who defected to Reform UK has declared.

- By David Williamson CHIEF POLITICAL COMMENTATOR

Laura Anne Jones, 46, made headlines in 2003 as Britain’s youngest parliamentarian when she was elected to the National Assembly for Wales at the age of 24.

She now predicts there will be an “exodus” of other Tories switching their support to Nigel Farage’s party, and says she has been “inundated” with messages of support from those who share her frustration with the Conservatives.

Labour has been the biggest party in Wales in every general election since 1922 but Ms Jones is confident its winning streak will end in next year’s elections to the Senedd — the new name for the Assembly — and that Reform will instead seize the opportunity to demonstrate its ability to govern.

Ms Jones expects to be “public enemy number one” when she returns to the chamber after last week’s defection, saying she is “sad” to be leaving party members behind but noting a lot of them “get it” and “feel the same way”.

She told the Sunday Express that after three decades as a committed Tory, things had “got to the point where I could no longer defend the Conservatives on the doorstep”.