Caroline Lucas, the co-leader of the Green party, is facing new questions about a £250,000 offer from a donor not to stand in a key byelection after a leak of texts to the Guardian.

On Wednesday, Lucas, who is standing for re-election as MP for Brighton Pavilion, claimed the offer could not have affected the decision to drop the Greens’ candidate in Richmond-upon-Thames, south-west London, because it was made after the party’s selection had stood down.

But her chronology of events has been challenged by leaked texts written by a party organiser the day before the local candidate officially withdrew from the contest.

In the texts, the party official told a member of the nearby Kingston-upon-Thames branch “about the party benefitting from us not standing”, explaining it could be worth “250,000” before adding the exclamation: “Fuckin ell”.

Text messages sent between Green party members Photograph: Handout

The Greens’ decision to not put up a candidate was seen as one of the key factors which led to the defeat of Zac Goldsmith by the Liberal Democrats’ Sarah Olney in the Richmond Park byelection in December. The election had been triggered by the resignation of the Conservative candidate in protest against the expansion of Heathrow airport.

Olney overturned a 23,000 majority after being anointed as a united centre-left opponent, with Labour picking up just 1,500 votes.

In an interview on Wednesday with Andrew Neil on the BBC’s Daily Politics show, Lucas said she could not remember who had made the offer, adding that the decision had been taken to stand down before the offer was made.

Text messages sent between Green party members Photograph: Handout

“I don’t know of the name of the person – I know of the incident you’re talking about. But it happened after the decision had already been taken to stand down, and the money was not accepted,” she said.

The key constituency meeting which decided whether the Greens would put up a candidate in the byelection took place on 2 November.

It brought together Green party members from the party’s Richmond and Kingston branches, with some Kingston members in favour of standing a candidate.

Sources said Kingston branch members were told in a pub by an identified party organiser about the offer of a donation that would be received by the party were it to decide to withdraw its candidate.

In texts written later that day, the official wrote: “Hiya, just reiterating that what I mentioned, about the party benefiting from us not standing, is confidential – please don’t circulate this or mention it to anyone else outside the small Kingston Group at the pub tonight.”

After being asked how much money was offered, she replied: “250,000” before immediately adding: “Just heard from Nick. Fuckin ell.” Nick is believed to be Nick Martin, the party’s chief executive, sources said.

The party’s final decision not to stand was made on 3 November at a meeting of Kingston Green party.

Andree Frieze, the Greens’ prospective byelection candidate, announced her decision not to stand that day, a party press officer said.

A Green party spokesman said there was no contradiction between Lucas’s claims to the BBC and the statements in the leaked texts, which he confirmed as genuine.

The spokesman declined to say when the party first received the offer of a conditional donation, but said Frieze had told Green party officials of her decision to stand down on 1 November.

“The Green party, and its co-leader Caroline Lucas, was only made aware of the texts when contacted by the Guardian. The texts that were sent do not represent the position of the Green party,” he said in a statement.

“Our one potential candidate, Andree Frieze, stood down on 1 November and explained her own reasons for doing so publicly.

“Caroline was right when she confirmed earlier today that Andree stood down before there was any discussion of a donation. Kingston Green party never put up a candidate.

“Both Richmond and Kingston Greens have remained committed to their decision to stand down and have therefore decided not to stand in the upcoming general election to give Sarah Olney and Vince Cable the best chance of winning.”

The spokesman added: “The Green party has stringent ethical criteria that all donations must meet. No donation was accepted by the Green party in this period.”

A clause in the Representation of the People Act says that anyone who “corruptly induces or procures any other person to withdraw from being a candidate at an election” through payment or the offer of payment is committing an offence.



The party spokesman added that no offer of money was made on the basis that their candidate stood down.

