High-profile Reform defection causes stir, but what does it mean for 2026 Senedd Election?
The significance of it has yet to be fully realised but certainly for now it has caused a sensation.
In the short term, it gives Nigel Farage's Reform UK a Senedd member, another symbol that it's gaining support at all levels of government and a possible leader in Wales and even, if the polls are correct, a potential candidate for First Minister.
But it brings its own problems. Laura Anne Jones is yet to be formally cleared by the Senedd's Standards Commissioner, Douglas Bain, after South Wales Police cleared her of expenses allegations.
And her presence adds to those who say that Reform UK is mostly the home of disgruntled, former Conservative politicians, something that might put off those supporters of other political parties who, polls suggest, have been tempted by what they're hearing from Reform UK.
For the Welsh Conservatives, it's a blow and one they weren't expecting.
One Welsh Conservative source made the jibe, 'She'll have to turn up to cabinet more often now,' while another expressed disappointment that Ms Jones hadn't confided in even her closest colleagues, particularly those who'd offered help and support including 'emotional support' in recent years.
Still, there's no doubt that her defection has shaken up a Welsh politics that is already being shaken up. Next year's Senedd election is one that is likely to bring huge change. Laura Anne Jones has just become a much bigger part of that change. Those other parties are contemplating what change means for them. There's the same mix of bafflement and frustration. When I bumped into Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth on the Royal Welsh Showground earlier, he highlighted the fact that he's a leader rooted in Wales but it's the visitor flown in from elsewhere who was getting the attention.
Similarly former Welsh Conservative leader, Andrew RT Davies, has been at the Royal Welsh in a personal capacity for the last few days before taking up political tasks today. He rather wryly laughs at the rumours suggesting it would be he who'd defect, repeating his mantra that he was 'born blue.'
A Welsh Labour spokesperson said, 'Today's defection is further proof that Reform are just the Tories in teal ties. Neither party cares about the people of Wales.
'Laura Anne Jones has seen the polls and, in a desperate attempt to keep her Senedd seat, is leaving the sinking Tory ship. This is someone who backed Liz Truss' reckless economics which crashed the economy, lost her front bench role over expenses claims and her own party said they were embarrassed by her racist slur in a WhatsApp group.
'She claims she's now part of the solution not the problem. Reform have no plan for Wales only Welsh Labour is listening and delivering for the people of Wales.'
In his statement, 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.'Welsh Liberal Democrat MP David Chadwick said, 'The Conservatives are clearly dead as a political force in Wales. But let's be clear: Reform has no answers for Wales, just more noise, division, and is seemingly now only a vehicle for failed Conservative politicians.
'The Welsh Liberal Democrats are standing up to Reform and defending the public services our communities rely on, offering the serious leadership Wales desperately needs.
'Our party's DNA is interwoven with Welsh history and identity. Next year, we will be fighting hard to build a fairer, more Liberal future for Wales. For voters who feel the Conservatives have abandoned them and are appalled by Reform, our door is open.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Opinion: We've been silenced on mass migration in Britain
I have lived long enough, in Eastern Europe before the fall of the Iron Curtain as well as in the West, to recognise the signs. Serious social unrest is in the air. And you don't have to take my word for it. Even Deputy PM Angela Rayner, a staunch socialist, warned this week that ministers at last need to acknowledge the public's 'real concerns' about mass migration, while Downing Street officials fear the nation is 'fraying at the edges'. At the opposite end of the political spectrum, Reform's Nigel Farage captures the public mood when he warns that Britain is close to 'civil disobedience on a vast scale'. The atmosphere of discontent seems palpable. Last week's demonstrations in Epping, east London , ignited by reports that a boat migrant sexually harassed a girl in the street, have provoked other protests, at Diss in Norfolk and at a luxury hotel requisitioned for asylum seekers amid the glittering skyscrapers of Canary Wharf, east London. Alarmingly for the authorities, groups of protesters appear to be gathering outside migrant hotels around the country every day. Yesterday, it emerged that Essex Police had actually escorted Left-wing, pro-migrant counter-protesters to Epping's Bell Hotel, now given over to illegal arrivals. The force has suggested this was to 'facilitate free assembly'. Last year, of course, a wave of riots was set off by the appalling knife attack in Southport, in which three small girls were killed and seven other people – five of them children – were seriously injured by a malevolent teenage psychopath. Now there are concerns such violence could break out again, fuelled by mounting public rage at the seemingly endless tide of young men arriving illegally on small boats. Keir Starmer has spoken about his wish to see our 'social fabric' repaired, but the Prime Minister and his Cabinet simply don't understand that this mounting crisis has been directly caused by their and their predecessors' unwillingness to grasp the concerns of ordinary people. The traditional values that bind a nation and give it stability – patriotism and loyalty to the whole country instead of splintered communities – have long been deliberately undermined by our political leaders and the State itself. Gus O'Donnell, the most senior civil servant in the country under three Prime Ministers between 2005 and 2011, captured this when he boasted: 'At the Treasury I argued for the most open door possible to immigration... I think it's my job to maximise global welfare, not national welfare.' Again and again, the public have expressed their opposition to such attitudes at the ballot box. Again and again, the politicians have ignored them. One man I spoke to recently, an ex-serviceman named John, told me: 'I'm fed up with feeling like an alien in my own community.' The Labour Party used to represent people like John. No longer. The Blairite project of 'multiculturalism' has visibly failed. Of course there are exceptions, and of course many migrants make a wonderful contribution to our country. But no one can deny that our society is more fragmented than it was a couple of generations ago. Starmer himself, before he feebly backtracked on his own phrasing, understood this when he referred to our 'island of strangers'. But he was right. Large parts of Britain, from Tower Hamlets in east London to districts of Bradford in West Yorkshire, have become ethnic enclaves. Assimilation or integration of the second, third or even fourth-generation migrants living there is increasingly unrealistic. The political establishment refuses to admit these profound problems, because to do so would be to accept the failure of their world view, maintained despite its obvious flaws for 30 years or longer. Why else would Labour ministers be so eager to fight the battles of the past – from reversing Margaret Thatcher's union laws to threatening to prosecute soldiers who served in Northern Ireland in the 1970s and now investigating police actions during the miners' strike more than four decades ago? As this long, hot summer roils on, I fear that events may force our leaders to confront these mounting tensions in our society – whether they like it or not. All it might take is one spark. An online rumour, a viral video clip, perhaps a single inflammatory post on social media – and Tinderbox Britain will go up in flames. Yes, some far-Right thugs have been present at recent anti-migrant protests. But it is completely dishonest of Labour to pretend that these scenes are purely the work of racist agitators. A report by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services into last August's riots in Southport concluded that most people who took part in them lived locally. They were whipped up not by criminal factions or extremists, but by disaffected individuals and online influencers. Ideology and political views played little part. The riots were a spasm of protest from a people who felt that no one was listening to them. Millions more who took no part in the disturbances still shared some of those concerns. They are ordinary men and women – largely apolitical. They would indignantly reject any suggestion of bigotry, and they are emphatically not racist. And yet they cannot maintain the silence, foisted on them by successive governments, any longer. As prime minister more than 20 years ago, Tony Blair schemed to make mass immigration an acceptable policy, with a 'marketing strategy' to sell multiculturalism to the country. This was despite a report, commissioned by the Home Office, that warned: 'People feel they do not have permission to freely express their fears.' Even then, in faraway 2004, many Britons believed our borders were 'open and overrun'. Labour's response was to downplay these fears, so that immigration stories were 'no longer automatic front-page tabloid material every time'. That cynical technique has become embedded in Labour's DNA. Starmer cannot imagine doing things any differently. But year after year of enforced silence has not dissipated the nation's fears – or its anger. It has achieved the opposite, by containing them under pressure. Now that pressure is building, and though I hope to God I'm wrong, the ominous sense that something terrible is about to flare up is becoming inescapable. Professor Frank Furedi is the director of the think-tank MCC Brussels.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Anonymise politicians' relatives working in Senedd, report says
The names of people related to politicians working in the Senedd should be kept secret from the public, the institution's internal standards body has Members of the Senedd (MSs) are banned from employing their own family, they can be employed by colleagues, as long as it is declared publicly in the register of the nature of the relationship would still be reported, the Senedd's standards said people's names should not be disclosed publicly for safety Wales was told the committee was aware of "several incidences of family members receiving unwanted emails and social media messages because they were related to politicians". Two of the four people on the standards committee, its Labour chair Hannah Blythyn and Plaid Cymru's Peredur Owen Griffiths, have partners who work for other pair declared an interest during the proceedings, but did not stay out of the discussions.A spokesperson for the committee, in a statement, said: "In making this recommendation, the committee sought to balance openness with the need to protect the safety of loved ones. "This is one recommendation amongst several intended to improve transparency around the declaration of interests by members."The measure would need to be agreed by Senedd politicians, who are currently on recess. The recommendation followed an inquiry into how MSs register and declare include requiring MSs to put a price on any gifts received and on overseas visits, and registering how much money they receive for work outside of the a forward to a report on the inquiry, Hannah Blythyn said the changes it was proposing "will encourage transparency and consistency".Among the 14 requests is that an "exception" is made for publishing the name of family members, where they are employed by other MSs."As well as increasing transparency, the committee was mindful of the need to minimise the release of information about family members, simply for being related to an elected member," Blythyn wrote."To that end, we agreed that publishing the names of family members employed by other members on the register was an unnecessary risk to their safety, and will be removing this requirement from the seventh Senedd onwards."Blythyn's report showed that both the standards commissioner Douglas Bain and the Labour Senedd group supported the told the committee there was "no significant advantage in publishing the name".The Labour group in a letter to the committee: "Family members who are employed by Members of the Senedd are not public figures and the group strongly believes that additional measures are now required to protect their identity as part of the Senedd's wider commitment to protecting staff and members from abuse and threats to their personal security." Blythyn, and committee colleague Peredur Owen Griffiths, both declared an interest at a meeting in April 2025 as both of their partners work for their party wife works for First Minister Eluned Morgan, while Owen Griffiths' wife works for Plaid Cymru MS Sioned earlier version of the inquiry report, published on the Senedd website, omitted the declaration. The Senedd said this was an "admin error".Blythyn and Owen Griffiths were both approached for comment.
North Wales Live
an hour ago
- North Wales Live
The North Wales speed trap that's caught nearly 300 drivers doing double the 20mph limit
Nearly 50,000 speeding prosecutions were dished out in North Wales over the past year - with some drivers smashing the speed limit in places. North Wales Police issued 49,403 Notices of Intended Prosecution (NIPs) for speeding in just one year, according to new data. The drivers were all handed a notice between April 6th 2024 and April 5th this year. Based on the basic fixed speeding penalty of £100 that would be a £4,940,300 in potential fines for offending road users, with the money going to the UK Treasury. Many will have been pinged just over the limit with the new default 20mph introduced by Welsh Government in 2023 catching many out. But data gathered by Legal Expert reveals that 688 people were caught going at least double the speed limit on a 20mph road while the highest speed recorded in North Wales was 116mph on the A483. Legal Expert's research shows that almost two-thirds of those 20mph offences were on just three roads. In just one year, 298 people were caught going 40mph or over on the A5104 Pontybodkin. That includes one driver clocked at 85mph in September 2024. Earlier data found that between January 1 2024 and the end of the March this year the camera recorded a total of 8,991 offences on that 20mph stretch. Another 74 went at least double the speed limit on the A548 Greenfield, as did 70 people on Gladstone Way when passing through Hawarden. In total, 655 drivers were caught going at least double the 20mph limit in Flintshire – 95 per cent of the total across North Wales. Fourteen were in Conwy, while there were 20 such excessive speeds recorded in Gwynedd, Denbighshire and Anglesey combined. Many 20mph roads are set to revert back to 30mph limits, particularly in Flintshire where there has been a huge number of fines issued, mainly due to the relatively high number of fixed cameras in the county. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox Legal Expert found that incidents involving drivers going well over the limit appear to be falling. An average of 67 drivers per month were recorded going over 39mph in a 20mph zone from April to September 2024, but that average fell to 46 in the following six-month period. Top ten 20mph roads where drivers exceeded 39mph: Road Incidents A5104 Pontybodkin 298 A548 Greenfield 74 Gladstone Way, Hawarden 70 Northop Road, Sychdyn 67 A548 Oakenholt 56 B5129 Pentre 49 A549 Mynydd Isa 34 Marine Drive, Penrhyn Bay 8 A548 Russell Road/Coast Road, Rhyl 7 A470 Llanrwst 4 The 'worst' driving offence in North Wales was on a 20mph road. In May last year, a person travelling on the B5129 in Pentre went 88mph, a full 68mph above the legal limit. On the A483, North Wales Police recorded one driver going 116mph, the highest speed recorded across North Wales in the past year. Nine drivers were seen travelling westbound on the A55 Rhuallt Hill at 100mph or over. The top ten speeds recorded in North Wales: Legal Expert is an expert firm of personal injury solicitors with years of experience in handling road traffic accident compensation claims.
