THE leader of the Wales Green Party has said it is “inevitable” his party will eventually become a standalone organisation.
Speaking to Nation Cymru, Anthony Slaughter said he was not “embarrassed” by his party’s decision to remain part of the England and Wales Green Party instead of creating a wholly standalone group.
A vote was put to party members in 2017 although they voted to continue to work with their colleagues in England rather than break away.
Slaughter said: “There are some great colleagues in the English party, great and inspiring people to work with.
“But I do believe, especially in an age of devolution – and it’s no secret that the Wales Green Party supports Welsh independence – I do believe the party can best represent the people of Wales by being a standalone Wales party.”
He did add however that this was his “personal view” and that he was not speaking as “party leader”.
The Scottish Greens were founded in 1990 when the former Green Party separated into two independent groups.
Slaughter added: “Ever since the party several years ago came out in favour of Welsh independence, the discussion has started again.
“The Scottish Green Party left the UK Green Party in 1990, with devolution round the corner - it made sense to them.
“I’ve said for years that an independent Welsh party is not only inevitable – it’s desirable. We’ve recently set up a working group, instructed by conference, to look into what this means in terms of membership and legal aspects.
“We’ll do all this modelling, which wasn’t done last time, and at a future date put it to the membership.”
He continued: “It’s been an ongoing conversation in the party for many years. The last vote of members was a year after the Brexit referendum, so that wasn’t the best timing.
“It showed you shouldn’t hold a referendum until you’d done the work, and the membership at the time weren’t really presented with a case as to why it should be an independent Green party – how it should function – so they voted against it.”
