Former Senedd colleagues face off in vicious social media spat over Welsh Reform leader’s links to London

Emily Price

Two Senedd Members who previously belonged to the same party have faced off on social media in a spat over Reform UK’s newly appointed leader in Wales and his long-standing links to London.

The row between Reform’s Laura Anne Jones and Welsh Conservative Natasha Asghar erupted after Dan Thomas, a former Tory leader of Barnet Council in north London, was confirmed as Reform’s Welsh leader last week. 

His appointment prompted questions about where he is living given his recent political career in London local government. On Saturday (February 7) Reform admitted Thomas had bought a house in Bath – but the party continued to maintain that he lives in Wales.

The Welsh Conservatives published a video clip online at the weekend of Reform’s new Welsh leader telling the BBC he had spent a year as a councillor in London while living in Wales.

Sharing the interview segment to X, the Welsh Tories wrote: “Reform’s Welsh Leader has admitted he spent a year as a Councillor in London while living in Wales!

“Do his priorities lie in London or Wales?? For real change vote Conservative and let’s #FixWales.”

Reform Senedd Member Laura Anne Jones hit back, publishing a post blasting her former Tory colleague Natasha Asghar for standing to be London’s mayor in 2023 whilst still serving in the Welsh Parliament.

Jones wrote: “Interesting… Welsh Conservative Natasha Ashgar MS – who represents South Wales East – put herself forward to stand for London Mayor, during this Senedd term, and stated that she ‘spends most of her time in London anyway’ and that she considers herself ‘a Londoner.’

“The old proverb ‘People who live in glass houses should not throw stones’ springs to mind.”

A Conservative source told Nation.Cymru that there had been long-running tensions between Jones and Asghar even before Jones defected to Nigel Farage’s party last year.

Back in May 2023 when Asghar had announced her bid to replace Mayor Sadiq Khan, Jones had appeared on ITV’s Sharp End where she refused to support her colleague’s London ambitions. 

Asghar responded to Jones’ online criticism with several social media posts of her own accusing her former colleague of being “childish and pathetic” and a “wild animal”.

In a post to X, Asghar wrote: “Laura if you wish to refer to me in your tweets you should have the decency and transparency to at least tag me in them.

“This is quite frankly childish and pathetic on your part.”

Jones did not respond. In a separate post to X, Asghar wrote: “Tonight Laura Ann Jones @reformparty_uk member used me as an example on X.

“To be clear when I applied – which I’ll never apologise for – @LauraJ4SWEast was the least supportive in the entire @welshcons party and it’s rather rich to be flying the flag in my name now 🤨 #MisogynyInHeels.”

In another post, Asghar accused Jones of abusing the kindness of the Welsh Conservatives and ignoring her constituents.

She wrote: “The @welshcons are superb and genuinely a good bunch.

“However, Laura has abused everyones kindness, she’s made enough offensive comments and frankly she would do better to focus on her constituents who rarely hear back from her – a complaint I regularly get.”

In another post about Jones, Asghar wrote: “Senedd elections are on 7th May too and frankly this sort of lame behaviour is just unbecoming and deplorable.

“As Conservatives we try to always hold a strong sense of professionalism and decency – in person and on social media – but some Reform members are like wild animals.”

Laura Anne Jones was invited to respond to her former colleague’s comments but she did not respond.

Natasha Asghar told Nation.Cymru: “The day I start taking advice or paying any real attention to criticism from someone like Laura Anne Jones is the day hell freezes over.

“Although if I wanted tips on how to foster a toxic working environment or make racist remarks, she would of course be the first person I’d reach out to.”

Both Jones and Asghar are expected to appear on ITV’s Sharp End this evening (February 10).