Calls for Reform MS to confirm whether tax payers cash was spent on legal contracts to gag staff

Emily Price 

Urgent calls have been made for Wales’ most senior Reform politician to confirm whether she used taxpayers money to fund legal agreements that gagged her staff from speaking out about their time in her office. 

A Freedom of Information (FoI) request obtained as part of a collaboration between Nation.Cymru and Wales Online revealed that South Wales East MS Laura Anne Jones billed the taxpayer for £1,876 in legal fees in 2024/25.

Jones says the cash was not spent on legal advice during a Standards Commissioner’s probe into allegations that she had falsified milage expenses when she was still a Welsh Conservative.

In a statement, she said: “The Senedd has not paid any legal fees on my behalf to advise me on the Standards Commissioner’s investigation – nor would it ever approve such public spending. It seems your ‘source’ is attempting to create a story where none exists.

“All payments made have been fully in line with Senedd rules and the determination.

“Reform UK Cymru is committed to eliminating wasteful government spending when in office. There has been far too much of it, and the people of Wales deserve better.”

Blanked

However, despite being pressed several times for further details, Jones blanked questions about whether taxpayers cash was spent on any Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) – a legally binding contract that prevents employees from disclosing certain information.

In its FoI response the Senedd said it could not confirm nor deny whether the legal fees were for NDAs due to data protection regulations.

A Labour source said: “This is more appalling news. It looks like Reform are using public money to stop people telling the truth about their behaviour in public office.

“There now needs to be a full external investigation into Laura Anne Jones and her office – we’ve had bullying, racism and dodgy expense claims. Now we need transparency openness and accountability.”

Expenses

The Senedd watchdog recently cleared Jones over claims from a former employee that she had claimed petrol cash for journeys she did not make.

South Wales Police were called in to investigate the allegations last year – but later concluded that “no evidence of fraudulent activity” was found.

Text messages leaked to the media showed that Jones had told a staff group chat, “When doing petrol thing – always make more than I did – add in stuff please OK.”

When asked if expenses claims should be made for days when Jones was off sick, the South Wales East MS sent a text saying, “If you could always do more than it says, that’d be fab, thanks.”

Text messages

The whistleblower who raised the alarm thought the messages were proof that the Reform MS had broken the Senedd’s rules.

But Jones testified she, “did not keep an accurate record of all journeys she made” and that she had “instructed the complainant to use all available records to ensure that she included in the claim all journeys for which a claim could properly be made”.

The watchdog concluded that he was satisfied that Jones’ version of events was “more likely than not to be the correct one”.

However, Reform’s only Senedd Member was found to have broken the Senedd’s discrimination rules when she sent a text message describing the Chinese owners of TikTok as “chinky spies”.

The watchdog also found that Jones broke Senedd rules when she failed to challenge “offensive and unacceptable comments” made by one of her aides.

Bain’s report is currently being considered by the Senedd’s Standard Committee. 

It’s understood that the committee has called Bain back in to answer further questions about his evidence and the treatment of the complainant. 

NDA

A Welsh Conservative source – who is not the complainant – told Nation.Cymru last year that they were aware that Jones was instructing her staff to submit false expenses claims.

However, the source told us they had signed an NDA which blocked them from speaking out on the matter.

Another source close to Ms Jones’ office told Wales Online that Jones had used legally binding contracts to protect her reputation and prevent staff from speaking about her conduct.

In September, Nation.Cymru asked the Reform MS if she had ever asked any of her employees to sign an NDA or similar legal document that would block them from speaking out about her expenses claims or anything else that went on in her office.

We received a response that did not deny that an NDA had been used.

Jones defected to Reform UK from the Conservatives over the summer in a shock announcement at the Royal Welsh Show.

Her Tory colleagues were not aware of her plan to change parties until the announcement unfolded at a press conference hosted by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.