Green's government support not cost-free, says Welsh leader
PA MediaThe Green Party have said they won't provide support for the next Welsh government "just because they're not Reform".
Welsh leader Anthony Slaughter doesn't expect to be first minister but hopes to gain enough seats to play a crucial role in helping the biggest party form a government in next month's election.
Speaking on BBC Radio Wales Breakfast, Slaughter said "our support for a future Welsh government doesn't come cost free".
He said that the party's number one priority in any negotiation would be "protecting tenants, making rental easier and fairer".
The party promised to freeze rents for a year before giving councils powers to apply caps on what tenants pay and also wants to scrap council tax and build more social housing.
They also want to cap bus fares to £1 for most people, with free travel for under 22s, as well as restoring and protecting nature.
"People are really hurting out there at the moment and we have to make life better for them," he said.
"People are paying over-the-odds rent for often uninhabitable homes, damp and mouldy. They're struggling to pay their bills."
It is unlikely that any single party will win a majority under the new voting system for the Senedd election, which aims to better reflect how people vote.
As a result, parties may have to come to some kind of agreement before a first minister can be elected.
They Green Party have never won a seat in the Welsh Parliament, but Slaughter said he was confident of having a "significant group of Greens in the next Senedd" adding that "there is no seat in Wales where it's not possible that we could win a seat".
But he denied that their candidates lacked political experience, adding: "I have experience of working for a living. I have experience of bad housing.
"We have candidates across Wales with real life experience. And what have those politically experienced people, delivered for us?
"Twenty seven years of managed decline, highest child poverty rates in the UK, most degraded natural environment.
"I don't think their experience counts for much."
The Greens have ruled out working with Reform in the Senedd but insist they won't "support the future Welsh government just because they're not Reform or Welsh Labour".
"We will have clear objectives that we want, and I take a lot of lessons from my colleagues in the Scottish Green Party... because they've been there and done this."
But he denied they were selling themselves short and that a Plaid Cymru-led government could rely on their support whatever happens, stressing that "our support for a future Welsh government doesn't come cost free".
And he implied that they would want some of their key policies implemented in return.
