New Senedd Members reunited after fighting same by-election in 2023

Twm Owen, Local Democracy Reporter

Three newly elected first time Senedd Members all fought each other in the same council by-election three years ago.

Plaid Cymru’s Matthew Jones and Reform UK’s Stephen Senior were each elected to represent the new Sir Fynwy Torfaen constituency at last week’s Senedd election.

They will take their seats in the newly expanded 96 member parliament alongside Reform UK’s Jason O’Connell who defeated both in the Torfaen Borough Council Llantarnam ward by-election in February 2023.

At the time Mr O’Connell was elected as an independent but joined Reform, alongside two other independent councillors, in August 2024 and had a prominent role in the election campaign, which saw him elected in the Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr constituency.

As a result he has had to resign his Torfaen council seat which will trigger another by-election in the Cwmbran ward.

“I didn’t realise that, it’s quite funny,” said Mr O’Connell when asked if he was aware another two of the Senedd’s 2026 intake had been candidates in the election that returned him to the council chamber after losing his seat at the 2022 local government elections.

Plaid candidate Mr Jones, who took the second of six seats in the new constituency that combines the Monmouthshire and Torfaen, after Reform topped the poll, said: “I haven’t seen Jason yet but congratulations to him.”

The Sir Fynwy Torfaen result was announced at Chepstow Leisure Centre where Mr Jones joined the other successful candidates on stage, including Reform’s Stephen Senior but hadn’t realised he’d also stood in the 2023 by-election.

“I completely forgot Stephen Senior was in that by-election, that was when he was a Conservative.”

Mr Senior did eventually win a by-election two years later, when he was elected to Pontypool Community Council, in the New Inn Upper Ward, but three months later, in May 2025, announced he’d defected from the Conservatives to Reform.

First seat

The party has built a base on Torfaen’s community councils and since the three Llantarnam councillors became its first in Wales it also won its first seat on a Welsh unitary authority, in Torfaen, at a by-election in February 2025.

A number of Conservatives have defected to Reform, including former South East Wales Senedd Member Laura Anne Jones who took the first seat in Sir Fynwy Torfaen, while the party was was led in the election by former London Conservative council leader Dan Thomas, who was elected in Newport.

Mr O’Connell, who sat as a Conservative councillor from 2018 to 2022, said the number of former Tories in the party hadn’t been an issue: “Society and the political world has moved on from where the Conservatives were. I believe my politics remain pretty centre right and the Conservatives have not lived up to what they were.”

Mr O’Connell, who lives in Cwmbran, declined to answer when asked if he will be moving to his new constituency that includes Pontypridd and Merthyr Tyfil.

Overcome with emotion

Plaid’s Matthew Jones said he’d been “overcome with emotion” to be elected, in second place, in his home constituency having contested the Torfaen seat in the 2016 Welsh Assembly election and the 2024 general election with Plaid finishing as the largest party overall and in position to lead the Weslh Government.

“When I gave my speech, I was holding back the tears and when we got the results I’m not ashamed to say I cried. It was a very emotional experience.”

His father, Les, attended the count which was a “really important moment” said Mr Jones whose mother Susan Jones (nee Woolfall) died when he was just 18 months old.

The Aberystwyth University graduate grew up in Pontypool, and attended Ysgol Gwynllyw, and lives in Cwmbran. He worked for Plaid Cymru at the Senedd before taking a job with a cancer charity shortly after the 2024 general election.

“I loved working for Plaid Cymru but when I saw the opportunity to work for that charity it was something that really called out to me on a personal level.”

Reform candidate Stephen Senior is also from Pontypool and will be required to resign his town council seat now he’s been elected to the Senedd.

Donna Cushing, from Hengoed in Caerphilly county borough, was elected, in sixth place for Plaid, while Conservative Peter Fox and Labour’s Lynne Neagle, who represented the former Monmouthshire and Torfaen constituencies respectively, were elected in fourth and fifth positions.