by Jim Jepps

Caroline Lucas MP, has announced that she will not stand for re-election as Green Party leader in September in order to make way for new leadership voices.

In the announcement says that “I will also be able to dedicate even more of my work to the political frontline, putting the Green case for change in Parliament and in all circles of national political debate.”

This is an extremely positive development despite the fact that Caroline Lucas is clearly the most capable, extra-ordinary green politician.



Lucas currently has the four most difficult jobs in the Green Party. She is a fantastic constituency MP, the sole Party voice in Parliament, the main port of call for the media and the leader of the party.

It’s in her interests and the long term interests of the party that she creates room for someone to take at least one of those jobs off her hands.

It’s been five years since the referendum in the Green Party to adopt a leadership structure.

However, the moment the party adopted that new structure, the discussion on how it should use that structure stopped in order to move on from that debate.

There’s been no real development of the position of leader (and deputy leader) within the party and Lucas’ announcement gives the Greens a chance to do that.

The party will need to decide in September not just who it wants to elect as leader but how it wants to use the leadership position itself.

A collapsing Coalition government opens up new political opportunities, but getting taken seriously as an opposition party out from under the shadow of the Labour Party will be no mean feat in the second dip of an economic recession.

1. That means popularising a clear vision of how we deal with the politics of austerity and a drive to help local parties embed themselves in growing community movements, trade union struggles and opposing the politics of reaction.

2. We live in times where there is a growing confidence on the fringe right. There needs to be a strong voice against the demonisation of immigrants, homophobic bigotry, and anti-abortion campaigning.

3. That means a focus on building a campaigning party that champions the needs of disabled benefit recipients, opposes every local instance of privatisation of our health and other public services, that keeps pushing for real action on climate change in times when it has dropped down the political agenda.

Caroline Lucas has been, and will continue to be, an outstanding and articulate advocate for Green politics.

She needs to be joined by other higher profile Greens fighting their corner, developing new voices and ensuring that in every town and city in the country there is a viable Green group which makes a real contribution to the politics of the area.