Reform candidate fails to declare his earnings from a Senedd Member

Martin Shipton

A high profile Reform UK councillor who has been handed a plum Senedd candidacy has failed to comply with local government rules that oblige him to declare that he’s employed by a Senedd Member.

Jason O’Connell, who represents the Llantarnam ward on Torfaen council, previously sat as an Independent and Tory councillor before defecting to Reform.

Recently he was announced as Reform’s lead candidate in the Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr constituency, even though he lives Sir Fynwy Torfaen, where former Conservative MS Laura Anne Jones tops the Reform list of candidates.

This has caused discontent among Reform members in Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr, where some see Cllr O’Connell as a candidate who has been parachuted into the constituency because he is favoured by the party leadership.

Local members of Reform had no say in the selection of candidates, with all decisions being taken by party leader Nigel Farage about who will be permitted to stand in the Senedd election in May.

A political source contacted Nation.Cymru and said: “Jason O’Connell has worked for Laura Anne Jones MS as a Senior Adviser. It is the highest salaried position – except Chief of Staff – for opposition staff members. This was likely formalised when an advert – with a circa six-day deadline – was published in a tiny area of the Senedd website during the Christmas holidays – leading one to believe that Laura Anne Jones did not want a large cohort of applicants for this position from which to choose because she had Jason O’Connell in mind all the time. However, he has not updated his record of interests as a Torfaen County Borough Councillor to reflect this fact.

“The question is why? It could be an innocent mistake on the part of Mr O’Connell in forgetting to inform Torfaen CBC, or it could be the latter’s oversight in not publishing it in a timely manner. Or, there is usually a grace period before an interest needs to be declared and published – but I would suspect that has been well exceeded by now.

“On the other hand, could it be because he has something to hide? Jason O’Connell has received extremely favourable treatment from the Reform UK hierarchy for quite some time: senior adviser money from Laura Anne Jones, pushed into a constituency outside of his locality as a number 1 candidate, many media appearances gifted to him.

“Could it be that he didn’t reveal the job on his record of interests so as not to give those criticising Reform UK even more ammunition regarding cliques of people close to the top of the party hierarchy taking the better positions for themselves and feeding each other member and taxpayer money?

“It would be interesting to know why Mr O’Connell’s high-paying job with Laura Anne Jones does not appear on his Torfaen CBC record of councillor interests.”

We invited Cllr O’Connell to respond, but he did not do so.