Reform Wales lost its leader and a Senedd member within five minutes

Double bubble for Reform in Cardiff

Dan Thomas resigned as Reform's Welsh leader on Tuesday after being arrested at the weekend on suspicion of assault and controlling or coercive behaviour.

Thomas was bailed pending further enquiries and denies doing anything wrong.

Within five minutes of the announcement, Sarah Cooper-Lesadd, one of 34 Reform MSs elected in May's Senedd election, crossed the floor to Plaid Cymru.

That leaves Plaid with 44 members in Cardiff Bay and Reform, as the largest opposition party, on 33 seats.

What the defector says about Reform Wales

Cooper-Lesadd told BBC's Walescast that her former party was "completely chaotic" and "falling apart at the seams".

She said she approached Plaid after a "period of deliberation".

"It's been a journey for me since coming to the Senedd, it's come after a period of thinking about it, so it has been a while," she said.

She named speeches by Reform Caerdydd Penarth MS Joe Martin in June, including one making allegations about Sudanese asylum seekers, in which he implied they posed a safety risk.

Martin's words "just completely did not chime with the type of person that I am and the values that I have", she said.

She also revealed she voted Remain in the 2016 Brexit referendum and would back Welsh independence if a vote were held.

A former Conservative elected for Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg, she has now been in three political parties since 2024. Her full account came in her interview with BBC Wales.

Constitutional questions keep surfacing across the UK, from a border poll being taken off the table to the devolution decisions of Andy Burnham's first month as prime minister.