Laura Anne Jones Elected as Reform's Deputy Leader

Reform Senedd members have elected Laura Anne Jones to fill the vacancy left by Helen Jenner becoming leader.

Jones, a former Conservative who defected to Reform in the summer of 2025, won re-election on Reform's list in Sir Fynwy Torfaen last May.

Jones was suspended from the Senedd for two weeks in November 2025 after it emerged she had used a racial slur to describe Chinese people in a Whatsapp chat.

She later said she was 'genuinely sorry' for using the slur in August 2023 and denied she was racist.

Jenner was elected by Reform MSs in a meeting on Monday, and was unveiled by UK party leader Nigel Farage on the Senedd steps.

Jones is a former Conservative who defected to Reform in the summer of 2025. She won re-election on Reform's list in Sir Fynwy Torfaen last May - she is the party's rural affairs spokesperson.

Jenner was elected party leader after her predecessor Dan Thomas quit last week, after he was arrested on suspicion of assault and coercive or controlling behaviour. Thomas is on police bail pending further enquiries, and denies doing anything wrong.

While it has held votes of its 33 MSs it has not put the leadership of the Welsh party to the wider membership. None of the other group leaders in Cardiff Bay had faced any competition prior to taking their posts. Reform did not say in its initial statement who stood against Jones.

Laura Anne Jones is a former Conservative who defected to Reform in the summer of 2025. At the time she was the highest profile defection the party had achieved