Caroline Lucas has announced that she will stand down as joint leader of the Green Party to focus on her work in Parliament and as a constituency MP.
Her two-year term of office – as joint leader with Jonathan Bartley – is due to end in September.
The Brighton Pavilion MP wrote about her decision in the Guardian newspaper.
She said: “I won’t be seeking nominations to be a candidate in this year’s leadership election, when the process starts on Friday (1 June), 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.
“I’m proud of what we’ve achieved in two very busy years: thanks in large part to the extraordinary work of staff and volunteers, the party has been transformed in so many positive ways, with progress towards our shared goals well under way.
“One of our priorities was to secure political backing for updating the party’s structures, which have changed very little since the 1970s.
“We are driving forward a root-and-branch review of how the party operates and organises itself.”
Ms Lucas, the first national leader of the Greens, from 2018 to 2012, remains the party’s sole MP at Westminster. She won her seat in May 2010.
The 57-year-old politician previously served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), representing South East England, from 1999 to 2010.
The country’s de facto Shadow Environment Secretary is finally beginning to tiptoe away from the Green Party. Can’t wait to see who else is going to be in the breakaway Labour Party she’ll join sometime next year.
A very silly comment by Fishwife – of a piece with the headline’s use of the verb “quit”, when in fact it is the case that Caroline Lucas can only do the post for two years.
But Caroline admitted in the ITV Meridian interview that your party is having real problems with finance (getting £20 a day total in donations) due to lack of support; her continual whining about the failings in the political system that stops Green getting more seats in Parliament (I count this a blessing!); with almost all your policies being identical to those of Jeremy’s Labour there seems little purpose to your party; and your election pacts where you decided to not bother putting up candidates against Labour and them not putting a candidate up against Caroline; the, frankly, appalling results your party had in very other seat you stood for; and where the interview likened Caroline to Nigel Farage in that your party is only seen as being the leader.
I loved the way Caroline said she was giving up the role to spend more time in her constituency and focus on the effects of Brexit on Brighton Pavilion. Surprised she didn’t do this when the vote to leave the EU took place and she could have left Jonathan to take the reins of the Green Party on his own.
As such I think fishwife is being quite fair with her comments.
As their only MP, I imagine Caroline will still be pulling the strings of the Green Party when she steps down as joint leader.
It will be good to see if Jonathan performs well as leader as Caroline always seemed “to hog the limelight”, or if he will go when the election of a new leader (or leaders?) takes place.
Will Alex Phillips be standing as new leader? I recall that she couldn’t be joint leader before due to gender equality rules, but with Caroline gone?