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A Reform politician who was suspended from Wales’ parliament for using a racial slur about Chinese people has denied she is racist.
Laura Anne Jones told BBC Radio Wales that the offensive word she used in a WhatsApp chat “was a term used for a takeaway” during her childhood.
The former Conservative said she was “genuinely sorry” for using the slur in August 2023, had since undergone language training, and vowed not to use the word again.
Members of the Chinese community told the BBC in December that the use of the term had caused “a lot of hurt”.
Jones, Reform’s only Member of the Senedd (MS), was banned from the Senedd for two weeks last year.
Speaking to Radio Wales Breakfast for the first time since her suspension, the MS for South East Wales said: “I shouldn’t have said those words. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Asked why she used it, she said: “Growing up around here, when I was young, which is a long time ago now – I’m 46 – language was very different and that was a term used for a takeaway.
“I’m not going to sit here and make excuses because I’m genuinely sorry for that.
“I’ve done language training as my staff, and it will never happen again.
“I’ll be very, very careful of language that I use. I never wanted to hurt anyone and that was never the intention.”
Jones said she had “done a lot with the Chinese community, in the past and since, in Newport… and I’ve had a good relationship with them”.
“I will always be supportive of everybody in this country,” she added.
“I am not a racist by any stretch of the imagination.”
Jones’s pay was docked and she could not take part in proceedings in the Senedd during her suspension in December.
It followed an investigation by the standards commissioner, who found she had broken the code of conduct, but cleared her of making fraudulent expenses claims.
Last year the Chinese in Wales Association (CIWA) welcomed the action taken by the Senedd, but said the term Jones used carried “deeply hurtful and racist connotations” and it was “deeply disappointing to hear such language from an elected representative”.
