The party's spring conference responded directly to the suggestion made by Guardian columnist Owen Jones.

Green Party members threw out suggestions that they should merge with Labour this weekend, voting against the idea at the party’s spring conference.

The suggestion to the Greens was made most prominently by journalist Owen Jones – bringing scorn from Green Party members, and now officially from the party as a whole.

Owen Jones suggested that a merger of the parties ‘would end a pointless division on the British left’ and would ‘unite the English and Welsh left under one banner’ – but Green Party members aren’t so sure.

The Green’s spring conference voted yesterday to reject the idea of affiliating to Labour – and then went on to censor Labour’s policies and “woeful” internal democracy. The motion passed noted:

• Elected Greens are often the only viable opposition to Conservative administrations,
• Labour’s policies and actions on HS2, nuclear weapons and power, airport expansion, homelessness, libraries, estate demolition, the scapegoating of immigrants, tree felling, and more are not compatible with Green values,
• Labour does not support Proportional Representation, which is a high political priority for the Greens,
• Greens do not believe large broad coalition parties give voters enough choice nor that they produce effective government and are therefore not conducive to a good democracy,
• Labour’s internal democracy is woeful and not compatible with our members’ expectations of democratic policy making

Nate Higgins who tabled the motion said:

“I am delighted that conference has, in overwhelmingly passing my motion, resolved to reject affiliation with Labour and to reject the politics of the past in the form of large broad coalition parties that deny voters any real choice.

“Moving on from this, I hope that Labour listens to our call for them to adopt Proportional Representation as the basis for real democratic cooperation between our two separate and distinct parties.

Co-leaders Jonathan Bartley and Caroline Lucas commented on the prospect of the Greens merging with Labour this morning:

“If Labour are serious about building bridges with other parties, they should join us in pledging to ditch first past the post, and replace it with a fair voting system.

“The Green party has always been committed to working across party lines – but we’re not about to be folded into the Labour machine.”

Photo credit: Young Greens

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