Party denies wrongdoing, saying offer, which was made only after Green candidate had already withdrawn, was refused

The Greens have denied any wrongdoing after the party’s co-leader, Caroline Lucas, confirmed they were offered £250,000 by a donor to not stand in last year’s Richmond Park byelection.

Lucas said the offer was refused and had only been made after their candidate had already withdrawn.

She added that any allegation that the party had stood down in return for money in the south-west London constituency, where the Liberal Democrats unseated Zac Goldsmith, was “categorically wrong”.

Asked on BBC2’s Daily Politics about reports the Greens were offered £250,000 by a mystery donor to not stand in December’s byelection, Lucas said people in the party knew who had made the offer but she had forgotten the name.

A Greens spokesman said afterwards it was party policy to not reveal identities of would-be donors. However, he added, if the police wanted to know their identity – inducing someone to withdraw as an election candidate can be an offence – the party would tell them.

A Metropolitan police spokesman said a complaint was made in December, after the byelection, but in the opinion of prosecutors no offence had been committed as the Greens’ intended candidate was not formally standing at the time the donation was offered.

The apparent offer was first reported in December, shortly after the Lib Dems’ Sarah Olney overturned Goldsmith’s 23,000 majority after he resigned as a Conservative in protest at the expansion of Heathrow airport to stand as an independent.

The Greens’ decision to not put up a candidate was seen as one of the key factors which led to Olney being anointed as a united centre-left opponent, with Labour picking up just 1,500 votes.

Local Greens criticise Caroline Lucas over Richmond Park byelection Read more

Asked about the donation, Lucas said: “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.

“So any kind of implication that we were standing down for money is absolutely wrong, categorically wrong.”

Lucas was asked about a document written by a trio of Greens in Kingston, neighbouring Richmond, and leaked to the Guido Fawkes website, which claimed party officials had put pressure on them to support the byelection move, in part because of a promised donation.

She said that this document was put together by members disgruntled at the decision to not stand, who were “misled or misinformed” about the facts of the case. An independent party investigation had showed there was no substance to their claims, she added.

The Greens spokesman said the party’s prospective candidate in Richmond had opted to stand down before the £250,000 was made, and had not even known about it until a media report nearly a week after the byelection.

A Lib Dem spokesman said there was no suggestion the party was the source of the financial offer: “There is not a grain of truth to this. If I had £250,000 I would not be giving it to the Green party.”

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 standfirst of this article was on 15 May 2017 to make it clearer that it was an offer of a donation that had been refused,