Laura Anne Jones visits Chinese community centre

Emily Price

A Conservative MS who sent a racist slur in a group chat has said Chinese people need to feel “valued and supported” during a visit to a community centre in Newport.

In August, Nation.Cymru revealed a screen grab of a text message sent by Laura Anne Jones to her staff in which she described the Chinese owners of TikTok as “chinky spies”.

Responding to the offensive slur, one of the Tory MSs former advisors sent a heart emoji and a message saying: “That’s the Laura we love”.

The South Wales East MS later apologised saying the word was “unacceptable” adding that she deeply regretted using it.

Visit

On Monday (October 14) the former shadow minister posted photos to her Facebook page of a visit to a Chinese community centre in her constituency.

Alongside the images she said she looked forward to working with the Chinese community in any way she can so that they feel “valued and supported” in her region.

She wrote: “Fantastic to visit Chinese Community Officer Enoch and volunteers, Pat and Connie at the Newport Chinese Community Centre.

“I heard about all the great work that they do supporting the Chinese community in my region.

” They host a variety of events, with the aim of helping the elderly, particularly, feel less isolated. One thing that they do is hold Warm Hubs, where the elderly can come and have tea and play bingo, surrounded by people speaking Chinese/Mandarin.

“They are currently in the process of applying for Lottery funding to make the Hubs a more regular offering.

‘Barriers’

She added: “Language lessons, Day trips, celebrating Chinese New Year and even cooking lessons are just some of the things that Newport Chinese community offers members of the Chinese community of South East Wales.

“The Officer and trained volunteers also help break down language barriers when it comes to health care too.

“With around 100,000 Chinese people living from Monmouthshire to Swansea, this service that they offer is a vital lifeline for many.

“They are always looking for more volunteers, who can speak Chinese for Mandarin, could that be you?

“The community are also looking for a new City centre premises, with an office, kitchen and a large space to host events. Do you know any?

“Do get in touch with them if you can help volunteer, if you know a premises that may suit them, or if you know someone that would benefit enormously from joining the community and their wellbeing activities.”

Profile

The Welsh Conservative MS recently employed former Welsh Secretary David TC Davies to join her Senedd team of advisers.

We asked Ms Jones if her visit to the centre was an effort to rehabilitate her profile following the offensive message which surfaced over the summer.

Nation.Cymru also asked if her team had arranged the visit for her – or if the volunteers at the community centre had invited the MS.

We did not receive a response.