Reform MS facing suspension without pay for bringing Senedd into disrepute

Emily Price 

Reform’s only Senedd Member is facing suspension from the Welsh Parliament for two weeks without pay following an investigation into her conduct. 

Laura Anne Jones was investigated by the Senedd Standards Commissioner in April last year following a complaint by one to her former staffers who worked for her when she was still a Welsh Conservative.

It was alleged that the South Wales East MS had fabricated fuel claims, made a racist comment and had failed to address discriminatory behaviour in her office.

South Wales Police were called in to investigate Jones’ expenses last year but said there was no evidence of fraudulent claims. 

The complainant had provided screen grabs of text messages sent by Jones to her staff saying, “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.”

After officers closed their investigation, the probe was passed back to Senedd watchdog Douglas Bain.

In his final report, Bain said that he had accepted Jones’ version of events that her former staffer had merely misinterpreted the text messages.

However, he ruled that Jones had brought the Senedd into disrepute when she used a racial slur about Chinese people in her staff WhatsApp group chat.

She was also found to have breached the Senedd’s code of conduct for not challenging comments made by a former aide.

As reported by Nation.Cymru in April, Jones had sent a text message to her staff about a former caseworker saying: “I was soooooooooooooo nice to him too. I tried to be so understanding.

“I even asked if he has ADHD or something and if he needed extra support .. coz something isn’t right with him!?”

The then shadow education minister sent her team another text branding the former caseworker a “wanker”.

Jones’ former aide, now Reform UK head of communications, Ed Sumner, replied: “Grade A prick”.

He added: “Don’t think he realises how disliked he is.”

Messages leaked to Nation.Cymru in June last year revealed offensive remarks and laughing emojis about “multiculturalism” and “gays” sent by Jones’ team.

These included jokes about Welsh Conservative Natasha Asghar and her late father, the former Tory MS, Mohammad ‘Oscar’ Asghar.

Despite Jones being present in the chat, she did not appear to reprimand her team for the offensive conversations.

The Commissioner’s findings were sent to the Senedd’s Standard’s Committee several weeks ago and their final decision on whether Jones should be sanctioned was published on Wednesday (November 12).

No evidence

The Committee agreed with the watchdog’s ruling that no evidence of fraudulent mileage claims had been found.

However, the Committee also agreed with the Commissioner that Jones had breached several provisions in the Senedd’s code of conduct.

These included, rule 1 (failure to uphold the Leadership Principle), rule 3 (duty not to bring the Senedd into disrepute), rule 4 (duty not to engage in discrimination), rule 6 (duty not to subject anyone to excessive or abusive personal attack) and rule 24 (duty to take reasonable measures to ensure that their staff, when acting on their behalf).

The Committee, led by Labour’s Hannah Blythyn alongside Welsh Conservative Tom Giffard, Labour MS Mick Antoniw and Plaid Cymru’s Peredur Owen Griffiths said that “inappropriate and offensive comments have no place in our Senedd, or society more widely”.

They concluded: “These messages were contained within an office group WhatsApp chat, rather than a public forum; however the Code is clear that it applies to Members at all times.

“This provision is intended to ensure that as Members we conduct ourselves according to the required standard in all aspects of our lives. The conduct found in this report fell far below the standards expected.

“It points to an office culture where there was little respect towards others or any consideration of what may be found offensive.”

‘Pattern’

Although the Senedd watchdog urged the Committee to consider certain mitigations such as Jones’ mental health and the time that has elapsed since the breaches, the Committee concluded that the findings pointed “to a pattern of poor culture within the office of the Member rather than an isolated incident.”

The Committee recommended that Jones should be excluded from Senedd proceedings without pay for 14 calendar days.

Their report goes to Plenary next week for a debate and a vote on the Committee’s recommendation. Then, if it passes, a suspension will come into force.

The former Tory politician defected to Reform UK during a press conference at the Royal Welsh Show during the summer.

The announcement came whilst Jones was still under investigation – although at the time of her defection she had recently been provided with a confidential copy of Bain’s findings.

The Commissioner’s final reports are only made available publicly once they have been scrutinised by the Standard’s Committee.

It was noted that information about Bain’s probe including screen grabs of offensive messages and the Commissioner’s full final report were released to the press periodically before the Committee had seen them.

Jones herself had also talked about the outcome of the Commissioner’s report at the Royal Welsh Show, and her party leader, Nigel Farage, responded to questions in relation to it.

Confident

Hinting that she would be cleared, Jones told journalists at the press conference that she had seen the Commissioner’s report and was confident with the outcome.

Addressing the allegations facing Jones, Farage told the BBC: “Let me assure you that she would not have come to us, and we wouldn’t have accepted her, if we weren’t confident that will all go away.”

The Committee said that such “unauthorised releases of information undermine the complaints process”.

It added: “It is incumbent on all parties involved in the process to maintain confidentiality throughout, as this is the only way that confidence can be maintained in the system.”

The Committee’s final report also highlighted concerns about the complainant’s treatment throughout the investigation and the Commissioner’s approach to neurodiversity.

The whistleblower who complained about Jones is understood to be on the autistic spectrum and had suffered suicidal thoughts whilst working for the former Tory Senedd Member.

The Committee said it takes these concerns seriously adding that everybody should “feel comfortable and supported in engaging with the complaints process”.

Adjustments

The four Senedd Members recommended that at the outset of any future investigation the Commissioner should take steps to consider whether a complainant’s circumstances require any reasonable adjustments.

The Committee’s report also highlighted concerns about media reports relating to the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in Jones’ office.

In October, urgent calls were made for Jones 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 Jones billed the taxpayer for £1,876 in legal fees in 2024/25.

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.

Despite being pressed several times for further details, Jones blanked questions about whether taxpayers cash was spent on legally binding contracts that prevent employees from disclosing certain information.

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

The Committee’s report published today stated that the Commissioner had claimed that NDAs had not been raised by anybody during the course of his investigation.

The report added: “The use of NDAs by Members of the Senedd is something the Committee may give some further consideration to.”

A Plaid Cymru spokesperson said: “The language used was vile and completely unacceptable, and should never be used by anyone – especially those elected to represent our communities in our national parliament. It is only right the Member faces the consequences of her actions.

“The fact that Reform accepted the Member’s defection following this information coming to light tells us everything we need to know about the party, whose divisive rhetoric only serves to pit our communities against each other.”

Laura Anne Jones was invited to comment.