The Green Party of England and Wales has its roots in the PEOPLE Party started in Coventry in 1972/3 by four professional friends (Michael Benfield, Freda Sanders, Tony Whittaker and Lesley Whittaker). It then changed its name to the more descriptive Ecology Party in 1975, and to the Green Party ten years later. In the 1990s, the Scottish and Northern Ireland wings of the Green Party in the United Kingdom decided to separate amicably from the party in England and Wales, to form the Scottish Green Party and the Green Party in Northern Ireland. The Wales Green Party became an autonomous regional party and remained within the new Green Party of England and Wales.
In 1991 Green Party spokesman and TV sports presenter David Icke created considerable embarrassment for the Party when he revealed his extreme political and spiritual beliefs.[1] He was subsequently forced to leave the party.[2]
Internal divisions over the direction of the party in the early 1990s meant that the Green Party fell out of the limelight and failed to maintain its electoral momentum [citation needed]. In 1991, attempts to streamline the Party Constitution were proposed by a group called Green 2000, who wanted to "modernise" the Party and make it into an organised electoral force that could become the ruling party in the UK by the year 2000. After the Green 2000 Constitution was adopted, a new Executive came into force to oversee the day-to-day business of the party. Many Green 2000 members were elected to the new Executive in 1991 but, by 1992, only two remained, with the others resigning or being recalled and forced to quit. These internal constitutional wranglings, and negative public statements released by supporters of both Green 2000 and decentralists who ran the recall campaigns, seriously hampered preparations for the 1992 General Election, in which 253 Green candidates received 1.3% of the vote.[2]Sara Parkin and Jonathon Porritt left active involvement with the party.[citation needed]
The early and mid-1990s were difficult for the Greens, because of Britain's first-past-the-post electoral system, the recession of 1992–93 and the squeeze caused by the rising popularity of New Labour. Nevertheless, the party gained a handful of local councillors in Stroud and Oxford.
Caroline Lucas giving a keynote speech at the autumn conference of the Green Party of England and Wales, Hove, 2006
The election of a Labour government in 1997 created opportunities and focus for the Green Party. New democratic institutions were created that offered electoral possibilities for the Greens, such as the London Assembly, the National Assembly for Wales and – for the independent Scottish Green Party – the Scottish Parliament, all of which use some form of proportional representation, allowing smaller parties the chance of gaining representation. Labour also changed European Parliamentary elections to a form of proportional representation.
Combined with gradual council gains, the party quietly gained successes.
However the Greens did not manage to break through into other European electoral regions or the Welsh Assembly. Three Greens were elected to the first London Assembly.
According to MORI in 2010, Green issues were rated as importantly as during the Green Party's previous high point in the late 1980s.[7]
The party held its first ever leadership election in September 2008: Caroline Lucas was elected to the position of Leader, and Adrian Ramsay to the position of Deputy Leader.
Since 2010
The Green Party fielded more than 300 candidates for the 2010 general election.[8] Caroline Lucas became the first Green candidate to gain a seat in Westminster, after being elected MP for Brighton Pavilion by a margin of 1,252 votes.[9] The following week 600 new members had joined the Green Party bringing total membership to over 11,000. In previous years 600 new members was high for a whole year.
On 24 May 2012 the six Green Party councillors elected to Stroud District Council formed a power-sharing administration (a "constructive cooperation") with both the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats.[10]
At the 2015 general election Lucas was reelected in Brighton Pavilion with an increased majority but the party did not win any other seats. In part owing to the greatly increased number of contested seats of 538 from 310 at the 2010 election, the Greens received more than 1.1 million votes and increased their national share of the vote from 1% to 3.8%.[11]
In the 2019 local elections the Green Party secured their best-ever local election result, more than doubling their number of council seats from 178 to 372.[12] This success was followed by a similarly successful European election where Greens won (including Scottish Greens and the Green Party in Northern Ireland) more than two million votes for the first time since 1989, securing 7 MEPs, up from 3. This included winning seats for the first time in the East of England, North West England, West Midlands and Yorkshire & the Humber.[13]
In March 2023 the party abandoned its long-held opposition to NATO, though it said it supports reform of the organisation in aspects such as guaranteeing a ‘no-first-use’ policy on nuclear weapons, that NATO commits to upholding human rights and that the organisation acts in defence of only member states.[14]
For the 2023 United Kingdom local elections the Green Party stood 3,331 candidates, 41% of all seats that were up for election, the most they had ever contested.[15] More than half of the party's 536 total local council seats were to be defended at these elections.[16] The Greens launched their national local-elections campaign in Stowmarket, Mid Suffolk, where they are aiming at winning majority control, which would be the first time the Greens had won a majority on any council.[17] The Greens were said to have been aiming at winning at least 100 new seats, with their appeal spreading to both left- and right-wing voters owing to dissatisfaction with the two main parties.[18] The party had a net gain of over 200 councillors and won majority control of Mid Suffolk District Council, the party's first-ever council majority.[19]
In September 2024, Green Party members voted to reverse the party's longstanding opposition to the High Speed 2 rail project at their annual conference.[21]
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice.
The Green Party of England and Wales is a green, left-wing political party in England and Wales. Since October 2021, Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay have served as the party's co-leaders. The party currently has four representatives in the House of Commons and two in the House of Lords, in addition to over 800 councillors at the local government level and three members of the London Assembly.
Caroline Patricia Lucas is a British politician who was the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales from 2003 to 2006, 2007 to 2012, and 2016 to 2018. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Brighton Pavilion from 2010 to 2024. She was the Green Party's first MP and their only MP until the 2024 general election.
The 2004 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's part of the wider 2004 European Parliament election which was held between 10 and 13 June 2004 in the 25 member states of the European Union. The United Kingdom's part of this election was held on Thursday 10 June 2004. The election also coincided with the 2004 local elections and the London Assembly and mayoral elections. In total, 78 Members of the European Parliament were elected from the United Kingdom using proportional representation.
Keith Richard Taylor was a Green Party of England and Wales politician who was MEP for South East England from 2010 to 2019 and was the Party's animal rights spokesperson until his retirement in 2019. He was one of the two Principal Speakers of the party from August 2004 to November 2006.
The Wales Green Party is a semi-autonomous political party within the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW). 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.
Brighton Pavilion is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Siân Berry of the Green Party.
Siân Rebecca Berry is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion since July 2024, succeeding Caroline Lucas. She was a co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales alongside Jonathan Bartley from 2018 to 2021, and was its sole leader from July to October 2021. From 2006 to 2007, she was one of the Green Party's principal speakers.
Adrian Philip Ramsay is a British politician who has served as co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales since 2021 and as the Member of Parliament for Waveney Valley since 2024. He was previously the deputy leader of the Green Party of England and Wales from 2008 to 2012. He served as a Norwich City Councillor from 2003 to 2011. He worked as chief executive of the Centre for Alternative Technology from 2014 to 2019 and from 2019 to 2024 was CEO of MCS Charitable Foundation.
An election to Oxfordshire County Council took place on 4 June 2009 as part of the 2009 United Kingdom local elections, having been delayed from 7 May, to coincide with elections to the European Parliament. 74 councillors were elected from various electoral divisions, which returned either one, two or three county councillors each by first-past-the-post voting for a four-year term of office. The electoral divisions were the same as those used at the previous election in 2005.
This article lists the election results of the Green Party of England and Wales in the UK parliamentary, European parliamentary, London Assembly, and Senedd elections.
The 2014 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2014 European Parliament election, held on Thursday 22 May 2014, coinciding with the 2014 local elections in England and Northern Ireland. In total, 73 Members of the European Parliament were elected from the United Kingdom using proportional representation. England, Scotland and Wales use a closed-list party list system of PR, while Northern Ireland used the single transferable vote (STV).
Elections to Gloucestershire County Council took place on 2 May 2013 as part of the 2013 United Kingdom local elections. 53 electoral divisions elected one county councillor each by first-past-the-post voting for a four-year term of office. No elections were held in South Gloucestershire, which is a unitary authority outside the area covered by the County Council.
The 2016 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election took place from July to August 2016 to select a leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. The incumbent leader, Natalie Bennett, announced in May 2016 that she was not going to stand for re-election. The election was won by a joint platform of the party's former leader and only MP Caroline Lucas, with the party's work and pensions spokesperson Jonathan Bartley.
The 2017 Gloucestershire County Council election took place on 4 May 2017 as part of the 2017 local elections in the United Kingdom. All 53 councillors were elected from electoral divisions which returned one county councillor each by first-past-the-post voting for a four-year term of office. Control of the council went from a Conservative Party minority to a majority administration.
Alexandra Louise Rosenfield Phillips is a British politician. She served as a Green Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England from 2019 to 2020. She was Mayor of Brighton and Hove from May 2019 to May 2020; the youngest person to hold the office. Phillips was a Brighton and Hove City councillor between 2009 and 2023.
The 2019 European Parliament election for the election of the delegation from the United Kingdom was held on 23 May 2019. These were the last elections to the European Parliament to be held before Brexit.
In the politics of England, a Liberal Democrat–Green Party alliance is an ad-hoc arrangement between candidates and elected representatives from the Liberal Democrats and Green Party to form a joint group on elected bodies or to field joint lists or candidates in elections.
Dr Phélim Mac Cafferty is a former Green Party of England and Wales politician and the former leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, in Brighton and Hove, England. He served as a councillor for the Brunswick and Adelaide ward from 2011 until 2023 when he lost his seat.
The 2021 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election was held from August to September 2021 to select a new leader or leaders of the Green Party of England and Wales. It was triggered by Jonathan Bartley's announcement on 5 July 2021 that he would be standing down as party co-leader. Bartley had been co-leader of the party since 2016, initially serving with the party's Member of Parliament (MP) Caroline Lucas. Sian Berry, who had served as co-leader with Bartley since 2018, did not seek re-election with a new co-leader or by herself.
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