Green Party of England and Wales

• 1. Introduction

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  The Green Party of England and Wales won roughly 15 percent of the vote in the 1989 European Parliament elections. That came to 2.3 million votes, the strongest showing by any green party in a nationwide election. It placed the Greens third, behind only the Conservatives and Labour. It earned them no seats at all. Today the party has five MPs in the House of Commons, two members of the House of Lords and over 1,300 councillors. How does a party win millions of votes and still leave empty-handed? Where did it come from, and what does it actually want? Who votes for it, and why did its fortunes change so sharply in 2025? The first answer lies in the arithmetic of the voting system itself.

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• 2. Votes Without Seats

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  In 2019 the Greens collected 835,589 votes at the general election, about 2.7 percent of the national total. They won one seat, which is 0.2 percent of the House of Commons. Their support is spread thinly across England and Wales and seldom gathers in clusters large enough to carry a constituency. Under first-past-the-post, the candidate who finishes first takes the seat, and a party with scattered voters is left with almost nothing. That explains why the Greens held a single seat from 2010 to 2019.

  Their remedy is proportional representation, which would give every party a share of seats matching its share of the national vote. The party has also called for a Re-open Nominations option on UK ballot papers.

  Unlike the UK's other prominent parties, the Greens regularly field candidates against the Speaker of the House of Commons at general elections. They typically finish with the largest vote share after the Speaker.

  The 2024 general election finally changed the count. The party polled 1,841,888 votes, 6.7 percent of the total, and won four seats. Siân Berry held Brighton Pavilion. Carla Denyer took Bristol Central, defeating the Labour incumbent and Shadow Culture Secretary Thangam Debbonaire. Adrian Ramsay won Waveney Valley, and Ellie Chowns won North Herefordshire by beating the Conservative incumbent Bill Wiggin. It was the party's best general election to date. None of it was a surprise to the party's planners, since Brighton Pavilion, Bristol Central, Waveney Valley and North Herefordshire were the four seats it had chosen to target in advance.

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• 3. Roots And Rescue

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  Coventry, in November 1972, is where the PEOPLE Party was founded. It became the Ecology Party in 1975 and took the name Green Party in 1985. In 1989 the Scottish branch evolved into the independent Scottish Green Party. The Northern Ireland party became a northern branch of the Green Party of the Republic of Ireland. That left the branches in England and Wales to form a party of their own. When the UK-wide Green Party divided in 1990, three completely separate parties emerged, each with its own leaders, membership and policies. The English and Welsh party is registered with the Electoral Commission simply as Green Party.

  A group called Green 2000, established in July 1990, wanted the party rebuilt as an active electoral force capable of winning seats in the Commons. Its plan called for a more centralised structure, a smaller party executive in place of the existing party council, and delegate voting at conferences. Many members feared the changes would damage the party's internal democracy, and some left during the arguments. The proposals were defeated at the 1990 conference. They were then carried overwhelmingly in 1991, and the party was restructured.

  Between the end of 1990 and mid-1992, the party lost more than half of its members. Surveys pointed to frustration over a lack of clear and effective leadership. The Greens fielded more candidates than ever before in the 1992 general election and performed poorly. In 1993 they adopted a program called Basis for Renewal. It brought the conflicting factions together and saved the party from bankruptcy and possible collapse. It also tried to shed the image of a single-issue environmental party by giving social policy greater weight.

  After the 1992 result, the Greens also decided to concentrate on local elections, aiming at wards where Green activists already had a base of support.

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• 4. Alliances And Assemblies

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  Caroline Lucas won a seat on Oxfordshire County Council in 1993, and other Green gains followed in the 1995 and 1996 local elections. The party also looked for allies who could help it reach Parliament.

  In Wales, the Greens endorsed the Plaid Cymru candidate Cynog Dafis at the 1992 general election, having worked with him on several environmental initiatives. He was elected for Ceredigion and Pembroke North on a joint ticket, which gave the party its first seat. When the Ceredigion Greens backed him again as a joint candidate for 1997, critics called it improper to ally with a party that did not share all Green views. In April 1995 the Green National Executive had ruled that the party should withdraw from the arrangement over ideological differences. Dafis remained a member of the Green Party until 1997, which is why Lucas is usually counted as the first Green MP.

  Labour was moving to the political centre under Tony Blair and his New Labour project, and the Greens set out to win over its disappointed leftists. The 1999 European Parliament elections were the first in the UK to use proportional representation. They brought the party its first Members of the European Parliament, Lucas for South East England and Jean Lambert for London. At the first London Assembly elections in 2000, the Greens took 11 percent of the vote and three Assembly Members. That fell to two after 2004, but the Green members proved vital in passing the annual budget of the then Mayor, Ken Livingstone. In between, the 2001 general election gave the party 0.7 percent and no seats. By 2005 it passed 1 percent nationally for the first time, and took more than 10 percent in Brighton Pavilion and in Lewisham Deptford.

  A November 2007 internal referendum asked members whether to replace the party's two principal speakers, one male and one female, with a leader and a deputy leader. The motion passed with 73 percent. In September 2008 Lucas was elected the first leader, with Adrian Ramsay as her deputy. At the 2010 general election she won Brighton Pavilion, the first MP elected under the Green banner alone. Keith Taylor succeeded her as MEP for South East England. In the same election the party also saved its deposits in Hove and in Brighton Kemptown.

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• 5. Surges And Setbacks

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  In September 2012 Natalie Bennett, an Australian-born former journalist, was elected leader, with Will Duckworth as her deputy. She steered the party further left, hoping to make it an anti-austerity alternative to Labour. In 2013 there were allegations of infighting between liberal, socialist and eco-anarchist factions.

  By December 2014 the party announced that its membership had more than doubled since the 1st of January, reaching 30,809. Polling intentions trebled from 2-3 percent at the start of the year to 7-8 percent at the end. In YouGov's national polls the Greens often placed fourth, ahead of the Liberal Democrats, and they won more than 25 percent among voters aged 18 to 24. The media called it the Green Surge, and the hashtag #GreenSurge spread on social media. Combined UK Green membership of 44,713 now exceeded that of UKIP at 41,943 and the Liberal Democrats at 44,576. For the 2015 election the party named twelve key seats. They included Norwich South, Bristol West, St Ives, and Holborn and St Pancras, where Bennett herself stood.

  The polls soon sagged. A Press Association poll of polls on the 3rd of April put the Greens fifth, on 5.4 percent. Membership kept climbing, however, and reached 60,000 that April. At the 2015 general election Lucas was re-elected in Brighton Pavilion with a bigger majority, but no other seat fell. The party contested 538 seats, up from 310 in 2010, and won more than 1.1 million votes. Its national share rose from 1 percent to 3.8 percent. Membership passed 63,000 overnight, then peaked above 67,000 that summer before declining after Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader.

  On the 15th of May 2016 Bennett said she would not seek re-election as leader. Lucas and Jonathan Bartley proposed to stand together in a job share. After the June 2016 vote to leave the European Union, Bennett published an open letter calling for an anti-Brexit alliance of Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru. Lucas and Bartley were announced as leaders at the Autumn Conference in Birmingham on the 4th of September. At the 2017 general election the party stood in 457 seats and took 1.6 percent of the vote. That was disappointing after 2015, yet it was still the second-best Green general election result.

  In September 2018 Bartley and Siân Berry became co-leaders, winning 6,279 of 8,329 votes. At the 2019 European elections the Greens gained seven MEPs, up from three, and won seats for the first time in the East of England, North West England, West Midlands, and Yorkshire and the Humber. Membership returned to 50,000 in September 2019.

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• 6. Councils And Constituencies

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  Peter Christie became the party's first local mayor in 1985, in Bideford. From the early 1990s to 2009, the number of Green councillors rose from none to more than 100.

  In 2011 the Greens took minority control of Brighton and Hove City Council, winning 23 seats, five short of an outright majority. It was the first time the party led a council. They lost that control in 2015, regained minority control in July 2020 after Labour's minority administration collapsed, and lost it again in 2023.

  The 2019 local elections were then the party's best ever, more than doubling its councillors from 178 to 372. In 2021 the Greens gained their first councillors in Northumberland and Stockport, and 88 seats overall, which challenged the Liberal Democrats as England's third-largest party. After the 2022 elections brought a net gain of 71 seats, including some in Conservative and Labour safe seats, Adrian Ramsay said, "People are looking for a positive alternative to the establishment parties, and finding it in the Greens."

  In 2023 the party gained more than 200 councillors and won its first-ever council majority, on Mid Suffolk District Council. It also became the largest party on East Hertfordshire, Warwick and Lewes. The 2024 elections added 74 seats and took the total to 812. The Greens became the largest party on Bristol City Council, one seat short of a majority, and won their first seats on Newcastle City Council and Sefton Council. They also won a first seat on Bolton Council, helped by anger at Labour over the Israel-Gaza war. After the 2025 elections the total stood at an all-time high of 859 seats on 181 councils. The 2026 elections then brought 587 more seats, the largest single increase in the party's history. The Greens took control of several London councils, as well as Norwich and Hastings, and won their first mayoralties in Hackney and Lewisham.

  Political scientist Sarah Birch found in 2009 that the party's strongest areas were Labour-held seats in university towns or in urban areas with many students. She also found a link between Green support and people who say they have no religion. Sociologist Chris Rootes had written in 1995 that the party drew younger, highly educated professionals, though not predominantly urban ones. Rural voters count too. Waveney Valley, which Electoral Calculus described as primarily rural, elected Ramsay in 2024. A February 2024 poll found that 14 percent of Muslim voters had backed the Greens and 38 percent no longer supported Labour. Mothin Ali, elected to Leeds City Council, later became the party's deputy leader.

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• 7. The Green Platform

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  Policies for a Sustainable Society is the title of the Green Party's full set of policies, as approved by successive conferences. Before February 2010 it was called The Manifesto for a Sustainable Society. The platform joins environmentalism to left-wing economics, including a steady-state economy and regulated capitalism. Political scientist Lynn Bennie described the party in 2016 as positioned "left, libertarian and green".

  In October 2021 the party backed a minimum wage of 15 pounds an hour. It supports a four-day working week. In November 2019 it pledged a universal basic income by 2025, giving every adult in the UK at least 89 pounds a week. The 2015 manifesto proposed a Robin Hood tax on banks and a 60 percent tax on people earning above 150,000 pounds. The 2024 manifesto, under the slogan "Real hope. Real change", proposed higher tax above 50,270 pounds a year and public ownership of railways, water companies and the largest energy companies. It also backed rent controls and an end to no-fault evictions.

  On the environment, the party would end subsidies for fossil fuels and remove nuclear subsidies within ten years. It favours wind, solar, hydropower, tidal, wave, marine and geothermal energy. The 2019 manifesto called for net-zero emissions by 2030. It would also ban trophy hunting and trail hunting.

  The party's green transport hierarchy puts walking and disabled access first, followed by cycling and then public transport. Light goods vehicles, taxis and low-powered motorcycles come next, then private cars. Heavy goods vehicles are second to last, and aeroplanes come last. In September 2024 members voted to reverse the party's historical opposition to High Speed 2. The party also calls for free bus passes for under-22s in England.

  The party treats drugs as a health issue rather than a criminal one. It favours decriminalising personal possession, overdose prevention centres, and a national commission to design a legally regulated market.

  Since at least 1992 the party has urged unilateral nuclear disarmament. In 2014 Natalie Bennett led an anti-NATO march in Newport, Wales. In March 2023 the party dropped its opposition to NATO while demanding reforms such as a "no first use" policy on nuclear weapons. Its long-term goals state that the monarchy shall cease to be an office of government. In February 2021 it announced support for a referendum on Welsh independence.

  Trans rights have divided the party. In October 2022 the Scottish Greens suspended cooperation with it over what they called transphobic rhetoric and conduct. The English and Welsh party replied that trans rights are human rights. In February 2024 a court awarded 9,100 pounds to Shahrar Ali, a former party Speaker, for a breach of procedural fairness. The court upheld that parties may dismiss spokespersons whose views conflict with party values.

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• 8. The Polanski Years

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  On the 7th of September 2022, Zack Polanski was announced as the party's deputy leader. He defeated three opponents and replaced Amelia Womack, who did not stand again. In June 2025 Carla Denyer stepped down as co-leader to focus on her role as an MP, and nominations for the leadership opened on the 2nd of June. Polanski launched his bid by calling for a bolder approach. On the 2nd of September 2025 he won with 84.1 percent of the vote, the first time an incumbent Green leader had been defeated in a leadership election.

  The same day, the party said its membership had reached 68,500, the highest on record. By the 15th of October the New Statesman reported 110,000 members, 55 percent more than at his election. Four days later membership stood at 130,000, ahead of the Conservatives. It passed 150,000 by the 27th of October and reached 184,000 by the 17th of December. On the 1st of March 2026 it hit 200,000, a tripling since Polanski took over. The Young Greens of England and Wales grew to 50,000 members, making it Europe's largest youth wing.

  In December 2025, five Labour councillors on Brent London Borough Council defected to the Greens, among them the chief whip and a former cabinet member. Former Brighton Kemptown MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle and former North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll also joined. A December 2025 poll gave Polanski an approval rating of minus 1, against minus 12 for Nigel Farage and minus 43 for Keir Starmer.

  On the 26th of February 2026, Hannah Spencer won the Gorton and Denton by-election with 41 percent and a majority above 4,000. It was the party's first by-election victory. The Greens had never before won more than 10 percent in a parliamentary by-election. A YouGov poll a week later put the party on 21 percent, two points behind Reform, its highest polling ever recorded.

  In 2026, more than 30 local election candidates were accused of sharing antisemitic content online, and almost a dozen were suspended during the campaign. Two candidates were arrested and charged with inciting racial hatred. Caroline Lucas called for immediate action against the candidates, while deputy leader Mothin Ali called for legal action over the suspensions. Polanski drew backlash for questioning "whether it's a perception of unsafety or whether it's actual unsafety" and for criticising police use of force in the Golders Green stabbings arrest.

  On the day of the 2026 local elections, the Welsh Green Party also won its first two seats in the Senedd. After the results, the BBC projected that the party would win 18 percent of the vote in a general election.

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