Once again it shows how Reform are not fit for office.
Yet another Reform UK politician has been suspended, as Nigel Farage’s party continues to make the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
This time, Reform’s only member of the Senedd has been suspended from the Welsh Parliament for using a racial slur in a Whatsapp group.
Laura Anne Jones used an offensive Chinese slur in a discussion about the threat of the Chinese government utilising TikTok for espionage.
Yesterday evening, the Welsh parliament voted for Jones, who defected from the Tories to Reform in the summer, to be suspended for a fortnight without pay.
While Jones previously issued an apology for the comment, the Senedd standards committee concluded that her actions “fell far below the standards expected” of a member of the Senedd.
The chairwoman of the standards committee Hannah Blythyn said: “We are clear that inappropriate and offensive comments have no place in our Senedd or society more widely.
“The conduct found in the commissioner’s reports are far below the standards expected, and point to an office culture where there was little respect towards others, or any consideration of what may be found offensive.”
Jones said she welcomed the findings of the police and standards commissioner, which cleared her of any ‘fraudulent activity’, and went on to add: “As for the language that I regrettably used in the private WhatsApp messages, I would like to take this opportunity to apologise once again for that in this chamber.
“I never meant to cause any offence and would never have that intention of doing so. It is deeply regrettable that the message and others in which I had aired my frustrations in private, which I’ve also apologised for and do again, were leaked to the press and made public, where they had the potential of being misconstrued and hurt someone unnecessarily.”
Once again it shows how Reform are not fit for office.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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