The Senedd has its first Reform UK member after a Conservative MS for the South Wales East region defected to the party.
Laura Anne Jones, whose regional seat covers the Torfaen area, made the announcement last Tuesday at the Royal Welsh Show in Powys.
Her decision was met with criticism from other parties and a former colleague.
‘Wales is a complete mess’
During the press conference, 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.”
“Wales is a complete mess. As you know, we’ve got the worst educational outcomes. We’ve got health statistics that are the worst in the UK.
“Farmers are getting battered, pensioners are getting battered… we can’t have this go on.”
Plaid Cymru Leader Rhun ap Iorwerth MS said: “This is yet another desperate Tory defection who knows the writing is on the wall for their party’s prospects next May.
“Our national parliament is not a plaything for those who want to set Wales on a road to ruin.
“Only a Plaid Cymru government will build a fair, ambitious and prosperous nation.”
No ‘principles’
James Evans, Conservative MS for Brecon and Radnor, spoke to BBC Radio Wales last Wednesday and said: “Laura and I have spoken, and I’ve made my opinions very clear. I don’t think she’s made the right decision.
“I am a firm believer, if you are elected as a Conservative member of the Senedd, you owe it to the electorate, you owe it to your party, to see your term of office out as a Conservative.”
“Jumping to Reform, it seems that she doesn’t have any principles.
“Everything about the Nigel Farage circus turning up here yesterday, I don’t think he had the response he was expecting. I heard him being booed. I heard him being jeered in some places, and a lot of people here don’t trust what he’s got to say.
“Because one minute he’ll come here and say one thing, and then he’ll go somewhere else and say something different. They’re not a credible option and they’re not a credible party.”
‘Tories in teal ties’
A Labour party spokesperson said that the defection was “further proof that Reform are just Tories in teal ties” and that “neither party cares about the people of Wales”.
A post on X by the Welsh Liberal Democrats following the announcement said: “Wales deserves better than these grifters.”