Laura Anne Jones MS on defecting from Tories to Reform UK

South Wales Argus

4 days ago

Even when things have gone on too long, it's hard to leave, because there are still nice moments.
When I decided to leave the Conservative Party, it was a plaster I knew I had to rip off. I had been a loyal member for 31 years. I had stuck by it through all its ups and downs. I'd won seats, helped win seats, lost seats, lost elections, but not for a moment did I consider leaving.
Even when it became a party that I no longer recognised, I held onto my love for the members and the activists, and some brilliant colleagues whom I will always admire greatly.
Many of them are steadfast in their traditional values and formed my political family that had given me the honour to represent them and where I live. But the fact is, many now feel that the Conservative Party has left them, much in the same way as it left me. It was time to face facts.
The party that I had fallen in love with had changed beyond recognition, in thought, in word and deed. It was no longer listening to or respecting its members. Reform is the only party that now represents decent, hard-working people, with traditional, patriotic values. People who love their country and are as devastated as I am at the erosion of our beautiful country and its values, faith and traditions. Now, many in Wales and the UK are now turning to Reform. In Wales, the Labour Welsh Government can't define a woman and has refused to act on the landmark Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman.
They have wasted taxpayers' money on the most egregious ideological projects like 20mph speed limits, tree-planting schemes in Africa, and a collection of unused overseas Welsh Government offices across the globe, despite foreign affairs not being devolved. With a cost-of-living crisis biting and with people in abject poverty in some of our communities, this is unjustifiable.
I believe Reform is the only party committed to driving that waste out of government, putting the cash back into our frontline services, into health, education and into opening Wales back up for business.
Our farmers are being sold down the river by a Welsh Government who are obsessed with tree-planting targets, instead of supporting our agricultural food-producing sector to create a sustainable Wales. They have been failed, and they need to once again be listened to and valued, for the invaluable role that they play in our country's fabric.
In Wales, we have the worst educational outcomes, the worst health statistics, with the longest waits in the UK - with waiting lists under Welsh Labour on the rise again!
Our economy, our pensioners, our farmers, and our most vulnerable keep getting a battering and immigration is out of control. Things cannot carry on in this direction.
Real change in Wales is long overdue. There is so much to undo and put right, and Reform is the only party able to stop Labour and Plaid getting into bed together once again, which is inevitable, and taking our beautiful country into decline again.
It's time to not be restrained by party politics, to find the real solutions to our problems here in Wales. I cannot wait to play my small part in that, in Reform, fighting for my constituents, my region and for my beloved Wales, and take people along with me.
With Reform, I truly feel that I am now part of the solution, not the problem. Come and join us.
It's time to make the Welsh Dragon roar again!
Laura Anne Jones is Senedd member of Wales South East.