The WalesGreen Party is a semi-autonomous political party within the Green Party of England and Wales. It covers Wales, and is the only regional party with semi-autonomous status within the GPEW. The Wales Green Party puts up candidates for council, Senedd, and UK Parliament seats. The current Leader of the Wales Green Party is Anthony Slaughter, with Duncan Rees and Lauren James as Deputy Leaders. Wales-wide decisions are taken by the Wales Green Party Council which is composed of the spokespeople, elected officers, and a representative from each local party.
Leadership and representation
The Wales Green Party elects a Spokesperson and two Deputy Spokespeople every 2 years, as well as electing council members on an annual basis to make day to day decisions between AGMs. All elected roles in the Wales Green Party are voluntary. The Wales Green Party is currently represented internally within the GPEW by Louise Davies and Kathryn Driscoll. on the Green Party Regional Council.
Leadership
Pippa Bartolotti became Wales Green party leader in January 2012. She stood for the leadership of the GPEW later that year. After four years of leadership, Bartolotti decided against standing for a further term as leader in the 2015 Leadership election which was won by Alice Hooker-Stroud, while Hannah Pudner became deputy leader. Alice was then re-elected in 2016 along with Grenville Ham and a returning Pippa Bartolotti as deputy leaders. Alice resigned in 2017 stating that her position had become "untenable" due to the voluntary nature of the role. Alice was succeeded in early 2017 by Grenville Ham. Grenville defected to Plaid Cymru in late 2018 citing the party's vote to remain a part of the Green Party of England and Wales rather than to become an independent party as his reason. Like Alice, Grenville described his position as "untenable". Mirka Virtanen was elected deputy leader in 2016 to begin in 2017, replacing Pippa Bartolotti, and Benjamin Smith was co-opted to the vacant deputy leader role in July 2017. Anthony Slaughter was named the current leader of the Wales Green Party in December 2018, beating Mirka Virtanen and Alex Harris in the leadership election. Duncan Rees was elected deputy leader. Mirka was co-opted back into the deputy leader role until December 2019. Lauren James was selected to replace her in April 2020.
Leader
From
To
Martyn Shrewsbury
2004
2006
Ann Were
2006
2008
Leila Kiersch
2008
2009
Jake Griffiths
2009
2012
Pippa Bartolotti
2012
2016
Alice Hooker-Stroud
2016
2017
Grenville Ham
2017
2018
Anthony Slaughter
2018
-
History
The Green Parties in the United Kingdom have their roots in the PEOPLE Party which was founded in 1973. This became the Ecology Party three years later, and then the Green Party in 1985. In 1990, the Scottish and Northern Irish branches left the UK Greens to form separate parties. The English and Welsh parties became the Green Party of England and Wales, with the Welsh branch being semi-autonomous. At the 1992 general election, local Greens entered an electoral alliance with Plaid Cymru in the constituency of Ceredigion and Pembroke North. The alliance was successful with Cynog Dafis being returned in a surprise result as the MP, defeating the Liberal Democrat incumbent by over 3,000 votes. The agreement broke down by 1995 following disagreement within the Welsh Green Party over endorsing another party's candidate, though Dafis would go on to serve in parliament as a Plaid Cymru member until 2000, and in the National Assembly of Wales from 1999 until 2003. Dafis later stated that he did not consider himself to be the "first Green MP". In 2017 Welsh local election, the Wales Green Party's had their first county councillor elected to Powys County Council, for the Llangors ward. In July 2018 the party held a vote on whether to split from the GPEW to form a separate organisation. Of those members who voted, 65% voted against the proposal, despite the leader Grenville Ham campaigning for independence.
Wales Young Greens
Wales Young Greens is the youth and student branch of the Wales Green Party. Its current Co-chairs are Andrew Creak and Ramona Sharples.
Welsh Green Pride
Welsh Green Pride is the LGBTIQA+ Liberation group within the Wales Green Party which runs alongside but separate to the GPEW group LGBTIQA+ Greens. Its current Spokesperson is Ash Jones, and it has two deputy spokespeople Mike Whittall and Michael Cope. The group started a UK wide review of the discriminatory blood ban against men who have sex with men.
In September 2015, Amelia Womack, Deputy Leader of GPEW, announced her intention to stand in the National Assembly elections for Wales Green Party. An ITV article titled "Green deputy leader wants to switch to Welsh politics" wrote of Newport-born Womack's intention to stand in the Welsh elections saying; "She's seeking the nomination for the Cardiff Central constituency and – more significantly – hoping to be top of the Wales Green Party's regional list for South Wales Central." Notably the article went on to say "Opinion polls have occasionally suggested that the Greens could gain a list seat in the Senedd". 10 February 2016 Welsh Greens abandoned progressive alliance negotiations a few months before the Senedd elections
