15:29

Four Welsh assembly members are seeking to band together to form a Brexit party group.

The four include Mark Reckless, who has been a Tory MP and a Ukip and Tory AM. He has resigned from the Tory group.

The three others, Mandy Jones, Caroline Jones and David Rowlands, have all been Ukip AMs.

They have written to the Llywydd - the assembly’s equivalent of a speaker – notifying her of their wish to form a political group.

Mark Reckless told a press conference on the Senedd steps:

Brexit is being blocked and the Brexit party group in the Welsh assembly from today will be supporting Nigel Farage, supporting the Brexit party in everything that they are doing to protect our democracy and to ensure that Brexit is delivered.

Other parties are not happy.

A Plaid Cymru spokesperson said:

We consider this announcement today as having very serious implications for our democracy and our democratic principles here in the Senedd. The Brexit party did not stand and were not elected in the 2016 elections. They have no democratic mandate and they should not be permitted to form a group nor given access to public resources and funding in the Senedd. To permit them to form a group would make a mockery of our democratic system in Wales. The Senedd is not a playground for Brexiteer chancers, it is the home of Welsh democracy. We eagerly anticipate the Llywydd’s ruling in the full expectation that she will do the right thing and allow democracy to prevail.