Reform MS 'broke rules with racial slur but not expenses'

"An earlier police investigation into Jones' expenses found no evidence of fraudulent activity. Laura Anne Jones had been a Conservative Member of the Senedd (MS) for South Wales East at the time of the allegations. She defected to Reform in the summer. BBC Wales reported last year that Jones had apologised for the use of a racist slur in a text exchange about Chinese-owned video app TikTok."

"It has itself sparked a row because Mr Bain criticised the complainant - a former staffer who was sacked in February 2024. He said the complainant had raised concerns out of "revenge" following her dismissal from Laura Anne Jones' employment. That has been rejected by the complainant, who has told the Senedd's standards committee she had been trying to do the right thing and criticised how Mr Bain handled the complaint."

Laura Anne Jones used a racial slur about Chinese people in a WhatsApp group and was found by the Senedd's standards commissioner to have brought the Senedd into disrepute. She faced an accusation of breaching the Senedd's code of conduct for not challenging comments by a staff member. She was cleared of fraudulent expenses after her account that incorrect claims were made on her behalf was accepted. A former staffer who complained was criticised by the commissioner as acting out of "revenge" after being sacked; the complainant rejects that characterisation and defended her actions to the standards committee. An earlier police probe found no evidence of fraud. Jones defected from the Conservatives to Reform.

Read at www.bbc.com