History of the Green Party of England and Wales

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The Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW; or simply the Green Party) is a political party in the United Kingdom. The earliest predecessor to the Green Party was the PEOPLE Party founded in 1972. The Green Party of England and Wales itself was formed in 1990.

From 1991 until 2008 the party was primarily represented by two prinicple speakers, one man, and woman. In 2008, the party saw internal reforms which got rid of the system of priniciple speakers, replacing it with the position of Leader of the Green Party, and in 2010, Caroline Lucas became the first official Green Party MP. The Greens continued to have Caroline Lucus as the sole sitting MP until the 2024 general election, in which the party won 4 MPs, Siân Berry, Carla Denyer, Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns. In February 2026, they would win the Gorton and Denton by-election, making Hannah Spencer their 5th MP.

The Green Party of England and Wales has its roots in the PEOPLE Party, which was founded in Coventry in November 1972.[1] It was renamed to the Ecology Party in 1975;[2] in 1985, the party changed its name to the Green Party.[3] In 1989, the party's Scottish branch evolved to establish the independent Scottish Green Party, while the Green Party Northern Ireland is a northern branch of the Green Party of Ireland, leaving the branches in England and Wales to constitute their own party.[4] The Green Party of England and Wales is registered with the Electoral Commission, only as "the Green Party".[5] In the 1989 European Parliament elections, the Green Party polled 15% of the vote with 2.3 million votes, the best performance of a "green" party in a nationwide election.[6] This election gave the Green Party the third-largest share of the vote after the Conservative and Labour parties; because of the first-past-the-post voting system, however, it failed to gain a seat.[7] Many say the success of the party is due to increased respect for environmentalism and the effects of the development boom in southern England in the late 1980s.[8]

Early years (1990–2008)

In 1991, then Green Party spokesman and TV sports presenter David Icke created considerable embarrassment for the Party when he revealed his extreme political and spiritual beliefs. He appeared in a tv drama Die Kinder 1990 episode 4 in his capacity as spokesman.[9] He was subsequently forced to leave the party.[10]

There were six principal speakers in the Green Party until 1991, when changes advocated by the Green 2000 grouping reduced this to two.[11]

Seeking to capitalise on the Greens' success in the European Parliament elections, a group named Green 2000 was established in July 1990, arguing for an internal reorganisation of the party in order to develop it into an active electoral force capable of securing seats in the House of Commons.[12] Its proposed reforms included a more centralised structure, the replacement of the existing party council with a smaller party executive, and the establishment of delegate voting at party conferences.[13] Many party members opposed the reforms, believing that they would undermine the party's internal democracy and, amid the arguments, some members left the party.[14] Although Green 2000 proposals were defeated at the party's 1990 conference, they were overwhelmingly carried at their 1991 conference, resulting in an internal restructuring of the party.[15] Between the end of 1990 and mid-1992, the party lost over half its members, with those polled indicating that frustration over a lack of clear and effective party leadership was a significant reason in their decision.[16] The party fielded more candidates than it had ever done before in the 1992 general election but performed poorly, although it did win its first seat with the election of Cynog Dafis in Ceredigion and Pembroke North, who stood on a join ticket with Plaid Cymru.[17] In 1993, the party adopted its "Basis for Renewal" program in an attempt to bring together conflicting factions and thus saved the party from bankruptcy and potential demise.[18] The party sought to escape its reputation as an environmentalist single-issue party by placing greater emphasis on social policies.[19]

Recognising their poor performance in the 1992 national election, the party decided to focus on gaining support in local elections, targeting wards where there was a pre-existing support base of Green activists.[18] In 1993, future party leader and MP Caroline Lucas gained a seat in Oxfordshire County Council,[20] with other gains following in the 1995 and 1996 local elections.[18]

The Greens sought to build alliances with other parties in the hope of gaining representation at the parliamentary level.[21] In Wales, the Greens endorsed Plaid Cymru candidate Cynog Dafis in the 1992 general election, having worked with him on several environmental initiatives.[21] and he was duly elected on a joint ticket.[22][23] For the 1997 general election, the Ceredigion branch of the Greens endorsed Dafis as a joint Plaid Cymru/Green candidate, but this generated controversy with the party, with critics believing it improper to build an alliance with a party that did not share all of the Greens' views. In April 1995, the Green National Executive ruled that the party should withdraw from this alliance due to ideological differences.[21]

As the Labour Party shifted to the political centre under the leadership of Tony Blair and his New Labour project, the Greens sought to gain the support of the party's disaffected leftists.[24]

During the 1999 European Parliament elections, the first to be held in the UK using proportional representation, the Greens gained their first Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), Caroline Lucas (South East England) and Jean Lambert (London).[25] At the inaugural London Assembly elections in 2000, the party gained 11% of the vote and returned three Assembly Members (AMs).[26] Although this dropped to two following the 2004 London Assembly elections, the Green AMs proved vital in passing the annual budget of former Mayor Ken Livingstone.[24]

At the 2001 general election, they polled 0.7% of the vote and gained no seats.[27] At the 2004 European Parliamentary elections, the party returned two MEPs the same as in 1999; overall, the party polled 1,033,093 votes.[28] In the 2005 general election, the party gained more than 1% of the vote for the first time and polled more than 10% in the constituencies of Brighton Pavilion and Lewisham Deptford.[29] This growth was due in part to the increasing public visibility of the party as well as growth in support for smaller parties in the UK.[29]

At the 2007 Spring conference of the Green Party, the party voted to hold an internal referendum on whether the party should create a position of party leader, or maintain its system of principle speakers.[30] The result of the referendum six months later was in favour of swapping the principle speakers with the position of Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales.[31]

Since 2008

References and notes

Sources

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