A COUNCIL group leader who hopes to be elected to the Senedd used a meeting to highlight Reform UK’s former Welsh leader’s criminal conviction.

Councillor Richard John, who leads the opposition Conservative group on Monmouthshire County Council, said he wanted to raise the expected announcement of a leader for Reform UK in Wales at the authority’s January meeting.

After the chairman had made his opening remarks Cllr John said that part of the meting is sometimes used “to send our good wishes to Welsh party leaders for various reasons” and noted it is expected Reform UK will announce a Welsh leader.

The party doesn’t currently have a leader in Wales, and its only Senedd Member is South Wales East MS Laura Anne Jones who defected from the Conservatives last July. At the 2021 Senedd election Reform were led by Nathan Gill who has since been jailed over a Russian bribery plot.

Gill had been elected to the European Parliament for the Brexit Party in 2019, having previously represented UKIP in the parliament from 2014 and he........

© South Wales Argus