Auto Amazon Links: No products found. Blocked by captcha.
Laura Anne Jones, a Welsh Conservative member of the Senedd, has made headlines by defecting to the Reform party, as announced by party leader Nigel Farage. Jones is now the first Member of the Senedd for Reform and her decision marks a significant and high-profile defection within Wales. She explained that her shift was due to her inability to support the Conservative policies on the ground, with the revelation of her departure catching her former party off guard during a press conference.
The news of Jones’s defection has caused a stir among Welsh Tories, with Senedd Conservative leader Darren Millar expressing disappointment in her decision. Meanwhile, Jones’s move comes almost a year after she publicly apologized for making a racist comment about Chinese people in a WhatsApp conversation. She has been under investigation by the Senedd’s standards commissioner, Douglas Bain, in connection to allegations of bullying by a senior staff member.
Recent polls have indicated that Reform has a chance of becoming the largest party in the upcoming Senedd election in May. This development follows the earlier decision of former Conservative Welsh Secretary David Jones to join Reform, as well as ongoing speculation about potential defections to the party. Jones, who had been vocal about various issues during her time with the Conservatives, highlighted her disillusionment with her former party’s direction and praised Reform for paying attention to the concerns of the British people and called Farage a “great man.”
Having previously served in the National Assembly in the 2000s, Jones returned to the Senedd in 2020 and was re-elected in 2021 for South Wales East. With her defection, the number of Conservative politicians in the Welsh Parliament has decreased to 14. Responses to Jones’s move have varied, with Welsh Labour criticizing Reform as a party of high taxes and spending, while Plaid Cymru sees it as a desperate attempt to salvage Tory prospects in the upcoming election
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More
Auto Amazon Links: No products found. Blocked by captcha.