Reform’s only politician in the Welsh Parliament brought the Senedd into disrepute when she used a racial slur about Chinese people in a WhatsApp chat, the Senedd’s standards commissioner has said.

Laura Anne Jones was also accused of breaching the Senedd’s code of conduct for not challenging comments made by someone she employed at the time.

But she was cleared of making fraudulent expenses claims, with Jones’ account accepted, that incorrect claims were made on her behalf because messages from her were misinterpreted by another staff member.

Laura Anne Jones said she could not respond to “leaked reports, without being in breach of the rules”.

Warning: This story contains strong racist language and swearing

BBC Wales has obtained a copy of an unpublished report of an investigation by standards commissioner Douglas Bain.

It has itself sparked a row because Mr Bain criticised the complainant – a former staffer who was sacked in February 2024.

He said the complainant had raised concerns out of “revenge” following her dismissal from Laura Anne Jones’ employment.

That has been rejected by the complainant, who has told the Senedd’s standards committee she had been trying to do the right thing and criticised how Mr Bain handled the complaint.

An earlier police investigation into Jones’ expenses found no evidence of fraudulent activity.

Laura Anne Jones had been a Conservative Member of the Senedd (MS) for South Wales East at the time of the allegations. She defected to Reform in the summer.

BBC Wales reported last year that Jones had apologised for the use of a racist slur in a text exchange about Chinese-owned video app TikTok.

Mr Bain’s report said that in August 2023 Jones said “no chinky spies for me” in a WhatsApp group in which both she and the complainant were members.

The report said the post was made in response to her senior adviser saying that he had raised the TikTok issue at a Conservative Senedd group meeting on the same day.

Mr Bain said the comment breached Senedd rules against not engaging in discrimination, bringing the Senedd into disrepute and failing to uphold “the leadership principle”.

In a WhatsApp exchange with a separate former employee, Jones called a different ex-staffer “a wanker” and a “bitter, twisted, useless person”.

“I tried to be so understanding,” she wrote.

“I even asked if he had ADHD or something and if he needed extra support… cos something isn’t right with him!?”

The former employee involved in the conversation also called the individual the politician had criticised a “Grade A prick”.

In a message on 13 November 2023 the same employee Jones had spoken to in the above message posted in a WhatsApp exchange: “Suella [Braverman, former home secretary] was correct in what she said too. We have two tier policing. It was clear over the weekend if you’re white working class you get hammered, if you’re an Islamist it’s all fine, spew all the hate you want.”

Mr Bain described that comment as “offensive and unacceptable”.

He said Jones broke rules in failing to challenge both the “Grade A prick” and “two two tier policing” comments.

Mr Bain said Jones also broke Senedd rules over the critical comment calling an individual a “wanker” – including rules against subjecting anyone to excessive or abusive attack.

Last year it emerged that Mr Bain had referred claims about Jones’ expenses to the police for an investigation that was later dropped.

BBC Wales also published text messages from Jones’ phone, one of which said: “When doing petrol thing – always make more than I did – add in stuff please OK.”

Another in a series of messages about mileage said: “If you could always do more than it says that’d be fab, thanks”, with a thumbs up emoji.

BBC Wales was not able to verify whether the messages represented the whole conversations between the people involved, or their full context.

Mr Bain’s report said Jones had “identified a number of claims for journeys she had not made and has reimbursed” the Senedd “the amount she received”.

The commissioner said the complainant was responsible for the submission of expenses claims, rather than Jones.

Mr Bain said the complainant said she was instructed by Jones to claim for fictitious journeys, saying that messages between her, Jones and others supported her testimony.

“None of the witnesses identified by the complainant support her version of events,” Mr Bain wrote.

Jones denied making fraudulent claims and testified she did “not keep an accurate record of all journeys she made”.

The politician said she had “instructed the complainant to use all available records to ensure that she included in the claim all journeys for which a claim could properly be made”.

Mr Bain said he was satisfied with the member’s version of events.

However, he said that Jones had not provided any training on the code of conduct, or the rules and guidance on the use of Senedd resources – and said this was a rule breach.

But the commissioner said the “complainant misinterpreted the WhatsApp messages as an instruction to conspire with the member to submit fraudulent claims”.

“That would not have been prevented by the provision of training,” he added.

Mr Bain did not refer to specific WhatsApp messages in his comments.

The standards commissioner also dismissed a complaint that Jones had failed to act within the code of conduct for the Senedd when she dismissed the complainant from her employment.

In the report Mr Bain said he was “not impressed” by the complainant’s “demeanour when interviewed”.

He said if her expenses evidence was to be believed “it does not justify her conspiring with the member in what she knew was criminal conduct”.

“She took no action in relation to that alleged conduct until a month after her dismissal and then only after her attempts to obtain either re-employment or compensation had failed,” he said.

“That is not the conduct of an honest and trustworthy person.”

He added that he suspected “the complaint against the member was made in revenge for what the complainant had convinced herself was her unfair dismissal”.

Laura Anne Jones said: “It’s disappointing that, following several other leaks over the past 18 months, the investigation process once again hasn’t been respected and adhered to. This whole ordeal has taken a significant toll on my own health and my family.

“I cannot respond to leaked reports, without being in breach of the rules.

“I look forward to making a full response once the report is published in line with the standards process.”

The report will now go to the standards committee of the Senedd to recommend whether and how to reprimand Laura Anne Jones, with a final decision to fall to the Welsh Parliament itself.

While the committee could recommend to suspend her for a period of time, it cannot force her out of office.

In a letter to the standards committee, the complainant accused Mr Bain of “serious shortcomings in the commissioner’s approach, which in my view denied me a fair and reasonable process”.

She claimed the commissioner “failed to properly investigate my claims of bullying, which were central to my complaint” and said she felt “mocked and humiliated”.

She said her ability to raise concerns earlier was impaired by her autism and the “toxic and bullying environment I was subjected to”.

“This has never been anything more than trying to do the right thing,” she said.

Mr Bain said the report is “confidential” until it is published by the standards committee, “and it would therefore be inappropriate for the commissioner to comment”.