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Laura Anne Jones, who represents the Welsh Conservatives, is one of four regional Senedd Members serving the South Wales East region. She is also the shadow secretary for housing, local government and the Armed Forces.

As we wave goodbye to 2024 and enter 2025, it is a time to reflect on what has been, and make plans for what is to come. 

2024 has been a year of failures for the Labour Party as a whole, but in particular, Welsh Labour here in the Senedd. Skyrocketing energy bills due, rising rents, unaffordable house prices for young people, and record levels of homelessness across Wales. 

Despite winning the general election, Keir Starmer and his comrades wasted no time in becoming one of the most unpopular governments in recent history by removing the Winter Fuel Payment for pensioners, while here in the Senedd, the Labour MSs did nothing to oppose or subsidise them. 

Welsh Labour putting party and ideology before country quickly became a habit during 2024. Again, after the UK Labour Budget, I asked the MPs and MSs in Wales to stand up for farmers and oppose the tax on family farms. The newly elected First Minister at the time told me herself that I was protecting the richest in society, she was concerningly of course, confusing assets with income. 

Unlike Welsh Labour, my Welsh Conservative colleagues and I will never stop standing up for farmers, pensioners and all those who the Labour Party neglects, in fact all in my region and the country I love, Wales. 

In my new shadow cabinet position, I will do my best to get Wales to build more affordable and social housing, and fight for fair funding for local authorities across Wales. I will also champion the needs of veterans and those in our Armed Forces. 

Due to Labour, Wales is broken. It is vital that we fix our NHS, scrap the disastrous tax on family farms and ensure that vulnerable pensioners don’t have to choose between heating and eating. In the countdown to the Senedd elections, we will fight Labour and Reform to win the election, fix our broken system and get Wales breaking records and topping league tables again, for the right reasons. I would again like to wish the people of my region of South Wales East and Wales a happy, healthy and successful New Year!