Green leader steps down
GREEN MP Caroline Lucas is to step down as co-leader of her party in the autumn, she announced yesterday.
The environmental campaigner, the Green Party’s only Westminster MP, said she would not stand for re-election to her post at the party conference in September.
Ms Lucas has represented Brighton Pavilion in the Commons since 2010 and returned for a second spell as leader on a joint ticket with Jonathan Bartley in 2016.
Yesterday she said she had faith that a new leadership team “will step up to the challenge that our increasingly febrile times present”.
Under the rules of the party leaders are elected to serve a two-year term, with the Lucas-Bartley joint ticket securing more than 86 per cent of the vote to succeed Natalie Bennett.
Ms Lucas wrote: “I won’t be seeking nominations to be a candidate in this year’s leadership election, when the process starts on Friday but instead will be focusing even more on work in Parliament and in my Brighton constituency.
“I believe that Jonathan and I have shown the power of working together, since we became joint Green Party leaders in September 2016, and it’s now time for me to show the power of letting go.”
The Green Party’s vote share dropped two per cent at the general election last year, having been squeezed by a Labour Party moving to the Left.
But the party did make gains in local elections earlier this month, with candidates winning 39 council seats – an increase of eight.
Speaking at the time, Ms Lucas said: “The Green Party has taken a significant step forward with just a fraction of the resources of the bigger parties. We are now established as one of the four major English parties – and an electoral force right across the nation.”