Ex-UKIP Senedd leader quits Reform in candidate selection row
BBCA former UKIP leader in Cardiff Bay has quit Reform accusing the party of ignoring local members in a row over Senedd election candidate selection.
Caroline Jones says she will stand as an independent in the Pen-y-Bont Bro Morgannwg seat, after refusing to run in third place on Reform's list in Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr. Jones said she lacked "affinity" with that seat.
The party maintains its selection process is "fair" and "based on ability".
Three of the party's original six candidates for Pen-y-Bont Bro Morgannwg stood down and another for Pontypridd Cynon Merthyr pulled out as sources said there was anger over "parachuting" people into seats from outside the area.
The three Pen-y-Bont Bro Morgannwg Reform candidates stood down for a variety of reasons.
One in protest at the selection process, one after a photo appeared to show him performing a Nazi salute and another went for "personal reasons" which have not been made public.
Reform told the BBC it would present a full list for the election, taking place on 7 May.
Jones was one of seven UKIP politicians elected to the Senedd in 2016, having previously been a Conservative Party member.
The UKIP group in Cardiff Bay was soon beset by in-fighting, with Jones being one of three leaders it had.
She later joined the Brexit Party, but quit accusing it of having an "anti-devolution" stance that was against her principles.
Jones had hoped to stand for Reform next month in Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg, covering Bridgend and Vale of Glamorgan.
"I believe that when a candidate stands in a constituency that they should have an affinity with that constituency," she told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.
"In Pontypridd, where I was offered, people have built up branches, built up connections.
"They understand the needs of that community, and therefore I would have felt very ignorant, really, going into somewhere I didn't know anything about."
May's Senedd election is using a new proportional electoral system, in which parties select up to six candidates for each seat in order of preference.
The higher up the list a candidates is the more likely they are to be elected.
"They [Reform] assured me that three [third on the list] would get in, and so on," said Jones.
"But, to be perfectly honest, it was alien to me, Pontypridd.
"I have no affinity with it, and I believe every candidate should have a strong connection with their community before they stand in it."
Asked what response she got from the Reform party leadership to her concerns, Jones said there had been "none at all".
"All emails sent to the party from members, from constituents and otherwise, are never answered," she said. "You don't get a response."
Plaid Cymru has also lost a candidate, and faced controversies over some candidates' social media posts.
