Laura Anne Jones elected Reform's deputy Welsh leader

Reform MS Laura Anne Jones has been elected the party's deputy leader in Wales, the party has announced.

The post was vacated after the previous deputy Helen Jenner took the party's Senedd leadership on Tuesday. A vote was held among Reform's Senedd members.

In a statement, Jones said: "We've made a fantastic start here in the Senedd, giving a voice to the voiceless and standing up for Wales' left-behind communities. I'm excited to work with Helen Jenner and the rest of our team to deliver the real change Wales needs."

Jones was suspended from the Senedd in November 2025 after she used a racial slur to describe Chinese people in a Whatsapp chat.

She apologised and denied she was racist.

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 in Wales, unveiled in a shock press conference at the Royal Welsh Show that riled her former Tory colleagues.

Jones won re-election on Reform's list in Sir Fynwy Torfaen last May - she is the party's rural affairs spokesperson.

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.

The MS also courted controversy when she said rival parties had "entertained" the idea of children self-identifying as cats.

Jones was accused of misinformation but said the matter had been raised with her by parents.

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

Farage said Jenner, who had been a member of UKIP before joining Reform's predecessor the Brexit Party, was "a determined campaigner".