Senedd member Sarah Cooper-Lesadd quits Reform to join Plaid Cymru

A member of the Senedd has quit Reform and joined Plaid Cymru, saying her former party has "no interest in Wales".

Sarah Cooper-Lesadd's defection was approved by Plaid's Senedd group and national executive on Tuesday.

It means Plaid, which won May's Senedd election, now has 44 members , leaving Reform - the largest opposition party - with 33 seats.

Cooper-Lesadd, a former Conservative, was elected for the Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg constituency.

A Reform spokesperson said it had "planned to expel" her for supporting Welsh independence, while party Senedd member Llyr Powell said he questioned whether she "fully understood the core values of the party that she was standing for".

Cooper-Lesadd defection comes on the day Reform's leader in the Senedd, Dan Thomas, quit.

The MS grew up in the care system and in a statement said she wanted to be a voice for care-experienced people "who are still badly under-represented in our politics".

"Reform has no interest in the work I came here to do," she said.

"They are far more interested in division, opposition and headlines than in finding solutions."

She added: "The party centrally has no interest in Wales.

"Their Senedd group is a staging post in the effort to get Nigel Farage into Downing Street, and that was glaringly obvious at its conference this week."

Speaking at a press conference, the new Plaid MS said Wales needed "more devolution.

"It's shortchanged in so many different ways and Plaid Cymru is the party that best embodies that for me."

She criticised the party for not disciplining Joe Martin - an Member of the Senedd who was accused of racism for a speech in June.

MSs walked out of a second speech by Martin where he joked that Welsh students were unable to read.

Cooper-Lesadd said: "He was not in any way penalised for the actions that he did in the chamber.

"The party haven't reflected and learned... and they won't learn."

In a post on X on Tuesday evening, Plaid leader and First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth said his party's work was to "win support for our vision for Wales and it's clear that Sarah has been inspired by that positive vision".

"Sarah shares our group's values of fighting for a more prosperous future for our nation and rejecting the hateful rhetoric of the right," he wrote.

A Reform Wales spokesperson: "As soon as we discovered Sarah Cooper-Lesadd is in favour of Welsh independence and the break-up of the United Kingdom, we planned to expel her from Reform UK.

"Her separatist sympathies are not welcome in our party. Our policy on maintaining the Union is clear. Plaid are welcome to her, she is now in her third party in two years."

Reform MS Llyr Powell told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast on Wednesday that the party had "made a lot of effort to try to communicate" with Cooper-Lesadd prior to her decision to leave Reform.

He questioned whether Cooper-Lesadd "fully understood the core values of the party that she was standing for" and the reasons given for her defection.

"I was a bit puzzled by her saying she wanted to stand up for young people, because she was due to speak in the chamber on that very issue when she walked out and was willing for that debate to be shorter to go and do her defection," he said.

Powell said that her defection has made the party "more united".

"I think what Sarah's done has probably united us even more than ever before," he added.

"We're going to come through this stronger."

Plaid MS Marc Jones, chair of the party's Senedd group, said a decision to allow defections "is not taken lightly and "follows a period of reflection, discussion and a proper internal process".

He added: "It has been clear for some time to many of us that Sarah is sincerely motivated by a desire to make a positive difference, particularly for some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

"She has been honest about her political journey and has acknowledged that she was wrong to believe Reform was the right political home for her."

Plaid MS Sarah Rees told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast that it had been "easy for everyone to see" that Cooper-Lesadd had been "struggling" while representing Reform, and described the party as "difficult and harmful" and claimed it has "descended into chaos".

"We know she's got a lot of work to do to prove to people how she stood on that platform and how she's now chosen to stand," Rees said.

"She's someone who wants to do the right thing for the people that we work with. That's what Plaid Cymru stands for."

Additional reporting by Gareth Lewis and Danielle Herbert