Reform UK has appointed Laura Anne Jones as its new deputy leader in Wales, less than a year after she was suspended from the Senedd for using a racial slur about Chinese people.
Jones, who defected from the Conservatives to Reform last summer, will serve under Helen Jenner after the party’s Welsh group completed a rapid leadership reshuffle.
Jenner became leader on Monday after defeating Jason O’Connell by just 17 votes to 15. She replaces Dan Thomas, who resigned after being arrested on suspicion of assault and engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour.
Thomas has been released on bail, has not been charged and insists he has done nothing wrong.
Jones announced her appointment on Facebook, saying she was “honoured” to have been elected and grateful to colleagues for their support.
She said Reform had made a “fantastic start” in the Senedd and promised to support Jenner as the party’s new leader.
Jones was suspended for 14 days
Jones was suspended from the Senedd without pay for 14 days in November 2025 following an investigation by the standards commissioner.
The investigation examined messages sent in private WhatsApp groups while she was still a Conservative.
One message, sent during a conversation about the Chinese-owned app TikTok in August 2023, included a racial slur about Chinese people.
The commissioner found that Jones had breached the Senedd’s code of conduct by using the term. She was also found to have failed to take action over offensive comments posted by a member of her staff in another WhatsApp group.
The Senedd’s Standards Committee said her behaviour had fallen “far below the standards expected” of an elected member. MSs approved the recommended suspension without opposition.
Jones apologised in the chamber and said she had never intended to cause offence.
“I have reflected deeply on this, and I wholly accept the need to take greater care with my language at all times.”
She said she and her staff had completed respect and conduct training and that she had contacted members of the community affected by her language.
The same investigation cleared Jones of a separate allegation involving expenses. The commissioner found no breach of the code in relation to claims that she had fraudulently falsified mileage expenses.
That distinction matters. Jones was sanctioned for her language and her response to comments made by a member of staff, not for financial wrongdoing.
From the Conservatives to Reform
Jones represents Sir Fynwy Torfaen in the Senedd.
She had been a Conservative for more than three decades before defecting to Reform UK at the Royal Welsh Show in July 2025.
Explaining her decision at the time, she said the Conservative Party had become “unrecognisable” to her.
Her departure gave Reform its only representative in the previous Senedd. The party then made a major breakthrough in the May 2026 election, winning 34 seats with around 29 per cent of the vote and becoming the largest opposition group.
Jones’s promotion places her near the top of a group that Reform says is preparing itself to govern Wales.
It will also revive questions about the party’s vetting and standards. Jones’s suspension was not an allegation left unresolved. It followed a completed investigation, a finding that she had breached the code and a formal vote by the Senedd.
Reform has nevertheless decided that she is the right person to become its deputy leader in Wales.
Helen Jenner wins by two votes
Jones takes the position previously occupied by Jenner, who won the leadership after a close vote among Reform’s 33 remaining Senedd members.
Jenner received 17 votes against 15 for O’Connell. The narrow result points to a divided group at a difficult moment for the party.
A Welsh speaker from Neath, Jenner represents Bangor Conwy Môn. She has been involved with parties led by Nigel Farage for years, having previously stood for the Brexit Party and been a member of UKIP.
Farage introduced her as Reform’s new Welsh leader outside the Senedd on Monday.
He praised Jenner as a determined campaigner whom he trusted, while describing the events that forced the leadership election as a “bump in the road”.
Farage said the group would carry on “as if nothing has happened”.
Quite a lot has happened.
Thomas was arrested on 13 September and later bailed while Gwent Police continued its enquiries. He resigned from the leadership but remains the Reform MS for Casnewydd Islwyn.
On the same day, Sarah Cooper-Lesadd defected from Reform to Plaid Cymru. She accused her former party of caring more about “division, opposition and headlines” than finding solutions for Wales.
The defection reduced Reform’s group from 34 to 33 members.
Reform’s latest Welsh leadership problem
Thomas had only been appointed leader in February after being chosen by Farage to front Reform’s Welsh election campaign.
His resignation came seven months later and four months after Reform’s Senedd breakthrough.
As The Daily Britain reported following his departure, the upheaval follows an earlier scandal involving Nathan Gill, who briefly led Reform in Wales in 2021.
Gill was sentenced to ten and a half years in prison in November 2025 after pleading guilty to accepting bribes in return for making pro-Russian statements while serving as an MEP.
The cases are not comparable in law. Gill was convicted after admitting criminal offences. Thomas has not been charged and denies wrongdoing. Jones’s case involved a breach of the Senedd’s standards rules rather than a criminal prosecution.
Politically, however, they form a difficult backdrop for a party presenting itself as a replacement for Wales’s established political class.
Reform now has a leader elected by a margin of two votes and a deputy who was barred from the Senedd chamber less than a year ago.
Jones says she has apologised, completed training and reflected on her language. Her colleagues have decided that should not prevent her holding a senior leadership position.
Welsh voters will decide whether they agree.
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