Tory MSs face battle for constituency top spot

Emily Price 

Two Welsh Conservative Senedd Members will go head to head for the top spot on the party’s list of candidates for the new Sir Fynwy Torfaen constituency after both members had their incumbency requests approved.

On Monday evening (March 17), South Wales East MS Laura Anne Jones and Monmouth MS Peter Fox faced a selection council made up of Tory representatives from the area.

As both members were approved for re-selection, they will now face a ballot by the wider membership to rank them in the number one and number two spot on the closed list.

There will then be a further ballot for the as yet undecided candidates for positions three and four.

Candidates rated at five to eight on the list will be decided at a later date.

Reform

The next Senedd election will see votes cast for parties instead of individual candidates as part of plans to increase the size of the Welsh Parliament to 96 members.

Local and regional members will be replaced by 16 super constituencies each represented by six MSs.

The reforms will also see all Senedd constituencies given Welsh-language only names from next year.

Under the closed list system parties will be able to put forward a list of ranked Senedd election candidates.

A row blew up within the Welsh Conservatives last year over incumbency rights for sitting members which virtually guaranteed they would be at the top of the party’s list of candidates in the areas where they are already standing.

Congratulated

Laura Anne Jones is one of only three female Conservative Senedd Members – the other two being South Wales East MS, Natasha Asghar, and Aberconwy MS, Janet Finch Saunders.

The Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Local Government was congratulated on Monday evening by her fellow female colleagues in an internal group chat reserved for Conservative women.

Ms Jones told the chat that she hoped that “many more ladies” would come forward to stand for the Tories at the next Senedd election.

She was elected to the Welsh Parliament in July 2020 as the MS for South Wales East having previously served as the Assembly Member for the region from 2003 to 2007.

In August last year, Ms Jones issued an apology after making an offensive racial slur about Chinese people in her office group chat.

At the time, she was facing a probe by South Wales Police following allegations that she had falsified expenses claims.

Ms Jones was later exonerated after officers said no evidence of fraudulent activity was uncovered.

Conservative sources say the Senedd Standards Commissioner, Douglas Bain, has since resumed his own inquiries into Ms Jones’ office culture and conduct with several witnesses called to give evidence.

Re-election

Although Ms Jones will now go head to head for the number one spot on her party’s list several Tory sources told us they think it’s “possible” that the Conservatives will win two seats in the Sir Fynwy Torfaen constituency.

This means that Ms Jones and her Tory colleague Peter Fox could both be re-elected for another four years.

Mr Fox previously served a 13-year term as the Leader of Monmouthshire County Council where he played an instrumental role in securing the UK’s biggest city deal – worth £1.3bn – for the Cardiff Capital Region, for which he was subsequently awarded an OBE.

Last year he formed part of a coup of seven Conservative MSs who all threatened to resign their shadow cabinet roles unless former Tory leader Andrew RT Davies stood down.

The rebellion saw Darren Millar elected as the new leader of the Conservative Senedd group with the former Welsh Secretary David TC Davies leading the Welsh Conservative Senedd group office behind the scenes.