Welsh Senedd member Laura Anne Jones has defected from the Conservatives to Reform UK, becoming the party’s highest-profile defection in Wales.
Nigel Farage announced the news at the Royal Welsh Show, with Ms Jones – who was first elected in 2003 – saying she could longer justify Conservative policies on the doorstep.
Standing alongside Mr Farage, she said: “I’ve just suddenly felt that the Conservative Party was unrecognisable to me. It wasn’t the party that I joined over three decades ago.”
She said Reform, meanwhile, was “listening to the people of Great Britain”.
Ms Jones is the latest in a growing list of high-profile Tories to have defected to Reform, following former Conservative Party chairman Sir Jake Berry earlier this month, as well as Dame Andrea Jenkyns and former Wales secretary David Jones.
Her defection means the Conservatives are down to 14 politicians in the Welsh Parliament, ahead of crunch elections next year.
But who is Ms Jones?
From waitressing to the Welsh Assembly
Ms Jones was first elected to the then-National Assembly in 2003, becoming the joint-first Welsh Conservative female assembly member (AM).
She had the backing of the Conservative Party despite a conviction for drink-driving in 2002, which saw her banned from driving for 12 months and fined £75.
Jones said after the hearing: “I’ve never justified drink-driving and the decision is one I deserve. I’ve never done it on purpose.”
She had been earning £5 per hour as a waitress before she was elected.
Ms Jones served one term, until 2007, before returning in 2020 after the death of Mohammad Asghar. She was re-elected in 2021, for South Wales East.
She once used a racist slur in a WhatsApp chat
Ms Jones hit the headlines last year when it emerged she had used a racist slur about Chinese people in a WhatsApp group chat.
The Senedd member used the offensive term in an exchange about the Chinese-owned video app TikTok.
She later apologised and issued a statement, saying the word was “unacceptable and I deeply regret using it”.
“I sincerely apologise for any offence this has caused,” she added.
She apologised for saying she wanted to shoot chavs
In 2021, she was forced to apologise over old Facebook posts, in which she said she “would like to do a spot of Chav shooting”, and added it is “a shame that isn’t legal.”
She also joked about shooting the then Labour leader, Ed Miliband, saying she would become the “perfect shot” if she had “ol’ Red Ed to aim at.”
When she wrote the posts she was not an elected politician, although she had previously served as a member of the Senedd.
