Senedd politician Laura Anne Jones has defected from the Conservatives to Reform, party leader Nigel Farage has announced.

Jones becomes the party’s first Member of the Senedd (MS) and is Reform’s highest profile defection in Wales.

She said she could no longer justify Conservative policies on the doorstep, and that her former party found out she was leaving as the press conference was unfolding.

The announcement prompted anger among Welsh Tories – Senedd Conservative leader Darren Millar said voters in her region of South Wales East will feel “very let down by her announcement”.

The defection comes just under a year since Jones apologised for using a racist slur about Chinese people in a WhatsApp chat.

She has been investigated by the Senedd’s standards commissioner Douglas Bain, a probe believed to be related to allegations of bullying by a senior member of staff.

Suggesting she is about to be cleared, Jones said she has seen the report and is confident “with the outcome”.

A police investigation into complaints about her expenses found “no evidence of fraudulent activity”.

Recent polls have suggested Reform has a chance of being the largest party at next May’s Senedd election.

Tuesday’s news follows the decision of former Conservative Welsh Secretary David Jones to join Reform and weeks of speculation that the party was trying to persuade an MS to join.

Jones’s former staff member, Ed Sumner, has been working as Reform’s director of communications for several months.

Laura Anne Jones had spoken for the Conservatives on Local Government, Housing and the Armed Forces, and has regularly criticised the Welsh government’s approach to transgender people.

Speaking at the Royal Welsh Show in Llanelwedd, Jones said: “I’ve just suddenly felt that the Conservative Party was unrecognisable to me. It wasn’t the party that I joined over three decades ago.”

She said Reform “is listening to the people of Great Britain” and called Farage “a great man”.

“Wales is a complete mess. As you know, we’ve got the worst educational outcomes. We’ve got health statistics that are the worst in the UK.

“Farmers are getting battered, pensioners are getting battered… we can’t have this go on.”

Unveiling Jones, Farage said she brought “experience. She knows how the place works, and that’s very important for us”.

Jones had been reselected by the Conservatives for the new Senedd seat of Sir Fynwy Torfaen, but she faced a contest with Tory MS Peter Fox for the top spot on the party list there.

She denied that she had joined Reform because she was worried about not getting re-elected.

“I had a fair chance of getting in,” she told reporters.

Jones was first elected to the then-National Assembly in 2003, serving one term until 2007, before returning in 2020 after the death of Mohammad Asghar.

She was re-elected the following year, at the 2021 election, for South Wales East.

Her defection means the Conservatives are down to 14 politicians in the Welsh Parliament.

Welsh Conservative leader in the Senedd Darren Millar said: “Naturally, I’m disappointed by Laura’s decision and Conservative Party members and voters in South East Wales will feel very let down by her announcement.

He added: “We wish Laura all the very best in her new high tax and high spend party.”

A Welsh Labour spokesperson said: “Today’s defection is further proof that Reform are just the Tories in teal ties. Neither party cares about the people of Wales.”

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said: “This is yet another desperate Tory defection who knows the writing is on the wall for their party’s prospects next May.”