Reform UK defector issues 'exodus' warning with Kemi Badenoch in serious trouble

Labour is heading for humiliation next year when it will fail to be the biggest party in Wales for the first time in more than a century, a Conservative who defected to Reform UK has predicted. Laura Anne Jones made headlines in 2003 as Britain’s youngest parliamentarian when she was elected to the National Assembly for Wales at the age of just 24. She now expects there will be an “exodus” of Conservatives switching their support to Nigel Farage’s party.

She said she has been “inundated” with messages of support from people who share her frustration with the Tories. Labour has been the biggest party in Wales in every general election since 1922 but Ms Jones is confident its winning streak will come to an end in next year’s elections to the Senedd – the new name for the Assembly.

Ms Jones expects to be “public enemy number one” when she returns to the chamber after last week’s announcement she was joining Reform. But she said that after three decades as a committed Tory things had “got to the point where I could no longer deserve the Conservatives on the doorstep”.

She told the Sunday Express she was “sad” to be leaving party members behind but said a lot of them “get it” and “feel the same way”.

“The establishment parties have just failed Wales and they have failed Britain so I, and many others it seems from the many messages I’ve got, are turning to Reform,” she said.

Ms Jones, a 46-year-old farmer’s daughter, said she is “100% sure” Reform can emerge as the biggest party in May’s Senedd elections. Labour has led the institution since the birth of devolution in 1999.

“Labour has destroyed Wales over the last quarter of a century,” she said. “That was [painful] enough to watch but now it feels like at both ends of the M4 Labour is just destroying our country – Wales and the UK – and enough is enough.”

Claiming Labour is braced for bad results, she said: “I’ve never seen them so nervous in the Senedd.”

There are fears in Labour circles Reform will storm the party’s traditional Welsh Valleys heartland constituencies.

Ms Jones argues that just as a majority of Welsh voters in the 2016 referendum backed Brexit, people are ready in these areas to break with Labour “if they think it’s in the country’s best interests”.

She claims voters have “had enough” with the “daft things that have been coming out of the Senedd” – and points to the introduction of a default 20mph speed limit on roads in built-up areas.

Citizens, she argues, want to see improvements in key areas including health and education. The international Pisa rankings show Welsh children lagging far behind England’s in maths, reading and science.

“The Welsh Labour Government are very flippant about those league tables but they show exactly what’s happening,” she said.

There are strong hopes among Reform supporters that if the party wins the chance to govern in Wales it can convince people across the UK to put Mr Farage in Downing Street.

She said: “We can get those wheels in motion and show we’re really serious about getting Wales back on its feet and get the dragon roaring again.”

Her defection followed confirmation that former Conservative Welsh Secretary David Jones has also joined Reform.

Ms Jones is sure Welsh voters can embrace Mr Farage.

“My goodness, I was at the Royal Welsh Show with him and the reaction to him was absolutely incredible,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.

“He even superseded the Boris effect.”

Conservative Shadow Welsh Secretary Mims Davies cast doubt on Reform winning over the Welsh nation.

She said: “Voters in Wales can see Reform is simply a new high spend and high tax party. We’ve defeated Reform in three council by-elections in Wales this month alone because the public know empty slogans don’t make serious policy.

“Both Reform and Labour want to grow the state. More spending, more control and less freedom.

“The Conservative Party is the only party that will deliver for Welsh families, Welsh businesses and farmers, as well as Welsh communities to fix Wales after 26 years of Labour and Plaid Cymru failures.”