Welsh Greens welcome first ever councillor defections
Two Welsh councillors who have previously represented Labour have joined the Green Party, marking the first councillor defections to the party in Wales.
Green’s leader Zack Polanski welcomed Cllr Robert James, who previously led the Labour group on Carmarthenshire County Council, as the party met in Cardiff for its Wales conference.
Cllr James has represented the Lliedi ward as an independent since leaving the Labour Party in June 2024
Zack said: “I’m delighted to be welcoming Robert in person at this historic Wales conference where members are planning how to break through into the Senedd in the elections in 2026.
“This defection of a county councillor shows that the momentum is building and more breakthroughs will follow.
“Rob is a pioneer – he was the youngest Labour group leader in Wales, and now the first councillor in Wales to join the Green Party from Labour.
“He won’t be the last – I know there are many more weighting up their decision.”
Cllr James said: “During a time when our communities are the most divided in decades and the struggles our residents face continue to grow, I have joined a party that puts people and this planet first – by tackling crippling inequality, protecting public services and safeguarding the future of our environment.
“As a Green Councillor I will continue to fight for the interests of those living in Lliedi, and Carmarthenshire more widely, to get the changes we desperately need.”
Rob has led campaigns to divest pension funds from fossil fuels, for a locally owned bus company for school pupils and against cuts to local public services.
Anthony Slaughter, Wales Green Party leader, said: “The moral courage Rob has shown is exactly why he makes a brilliant Green councillor. It also shows the political tectonic plates are shifting in Wales. Our membership in Wales has nearly tripled in two months, closing in on six thousand.
“Our call to make hope normal again has galvanized the public to action, and the momentum around the party is going to carry us into the Senedd in May. We’ll be there to shake up the complacent and tired government that has forgotten the people it’s supposed to serve.”
Additionally, Sean Morgan’s decision to join the Greens after resigning from Labour during the Caerphilly by-election means his council now becomes the tenth local authority in Wales with Green representation.
Cllr Sean Morgan, who simultaneously resigned his position as Leader of Caerphilly County Borough Council on 11 September 2025, said: “It has become increasingly evident over recent months that the Labour Party no longer represents the values of ordinary party members or indeed ordinary people in the country, which has caused me to question the ethics of remaining in the Labour Party.
“Reading the Green Party manifesto and listening to the Green Party Leader, Zack Polanski speaking, it soon became clear that there is a political home for people seeking a party focusing on a fairer society. Therefore, it was an easy decision to join the Green Party”.
Anthony Slaughter added: “I’m delighted to welcome Sean, our second high profile Labour leader to join us this weekend.
“As Zack Polanski says, we are not here to criticise Labour, we are here to replace them. This truly demonstrates that we are the bold new voice that Wales so desperately needs.
“With the fully proportional Senedd voting system in May, this is another sign Greens will be pivotal in who runs the Welsh government next year.”
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Rob James has had more parties, wards and councils than hot meals.
Those meals will now be vegan.
Blimey, this a major scoop for the green party. Well done to the greens.
Telling that they have joined the wales greens rather than the new Jeremy Corbyn/Zarah Sultana party – which seems to be stumbling from one crisis to another – but disappointing perhaps that they didnt opt for the other progressive alternative in Wales to Labour….Plaid Cymru. That said its long overdue that the Greens started winning some seats in the Senedd, so these defections can only help them in that aim next May.
Rob James joining Plaid is stretching it a bit considering the stick he’s given the Plaid led administration as Labour leader.
On a more positive note, hopefully he’ll hold his fellow Lliedi councillor, Reform’s Michelle Beer to account on her opposition to Net Zero and other Green issues. Fun times ahead.
The haemorrhage of support for Labour in Wales begins. And the closer the Senedd election gets will go from a drip effect to a torrent.
So glad these former Labour councillors have come round to the concept of Welsh independence. The official policy of the Green Party. Perhaps their new-found accommodation will inject some more grounded experience to the Greens rather than the misinformed scribbles in the Guardian or the chatter of Shoreditch coffee bars.
Not really surprising, to me at least, if some traditionalist Labour local politicians have come to feel that Labour under Starmer’s tutelage no longer represents where they feel in conscience that they ought to be, given that Polanski’s election as the new leader of the Greens has shifted that party in a definitively more left-ward direction.
Road to Damascus? Or Vicar of Bray?
Either way – good move.