Laura Anne Jones, a former Conservative, defected to the Reform Party during the summer of 2025.
Her defection was the most high‑profile the party had secured in Wales, announced at a surprise press conference held at the Royal Welsh Show, which provoked outrage among her former Tory colleagues.
She was re‑elected on Reform’s list for Sir Fynwy Torfaen in May 2024 and serves as the party’s spokesperson for rural affairs.
In November 2025 she was suspended from the Senedd for two weeks following revelations that she had used a racial slur to describe Chinese people in a WhatsApp chat.
She later expressed “genuine regret” for the slur, which she used in August 2023, and denied being racist.
The MS also sparked controversy when she claimed that rival parties had “entertained” the notion of children self‑identifying as cats.
She faced accusations of spreading misinformation, but she maintained that the issue had been brought to her attention by parents.
Jones was elected by Reform’s MSs in a meeting on Monday and was formally introduced by UK Reform leader Nigel Farage on the steps of the Senedd.
Farage described Jones, who previously was a UKIP member before joining Reform’s predecessor the Brexit Party, as “a determined campaigner”.