Now more than ever, I’m proud to be co-deputy leader of the Green Party, with Zack Polanski as our leader.
His campaign in Holborn and St Pancras tripled our vote share in a seat Labour had comfortably held since 1983, making it a genuine marginal.
Zack has shown we can be competitive right across London, and I know he’ll make an excellent MP before long.
This breakthrough is part of a wider story that saw us win four MPs in 2024 in very different constituencies, win our first by-election victory in the North in February, and make big gains across the country in May’s local elections with our first two directly elected mayors, and taking control of five councils with joint administrations in several more.
Together, we have built a mass movement.
Since Zack, Rachel Millward and I were elected into our leadership positions, our membership has more than tripled.
We have transformed British politics, forcing a change in prime minister and pushing the Labour government to copy our rhetoric, even though they refuse to actually match our policies.
To keep winning, we must keep building.
We need to bring more people in, organise in our communities and show how Green policies improve lives.
We’ll keep fighting for our Youth Jobs Guarantee, for rent controls and council homes built at scale, for water nationalisation, against climate vandalism and new drilling, for a renewables revolution, against senseless wars, and for justice and liberation for Palestinians.
Zack, Rachel and I are united on these goals, as is our party as a whole.
Finnbarr Webster via Getty Images
It has been disappointing to see hostile media misrepresent differences over aspects of a recent policy motion as evidence of a much wider divide.
This could not be more off base. Perhaps they simply don’t understand the political culture of our party.
We can debate our disagreements honestly and constructively, as Greens have always done, while staying focused on what we are here to achieve together.
It’s one of the things that makes the Green Party unique. The way we handle disagreement inside the Green Party matters, because it reflects the kind of country we want to build.
Britain is a multiracial, multicultural democracy, and it is becoming more diverse, not less.
We have to make sure people of all backgrounds can live here safely and freely, with the same rights and respect.
I have been a Green Party member for seven years, but my political life began in the anti-war and anti-racist movements, and it is there I learned what racism truly is.
At its heart, racism creates a hierarchy of human worth: the belief that one group is entitled to greater rights, greater security, greater freedom, or greater power than another.
That hierarchy can become embedded in institutions, laws and social structures, making inequality permanent.
This is the lens I use to make many of my political decisions, and this is why I backed the Zionism is racism motion at our recent conference.
In my view, our member-led democracy is one of our party’s greatest strengths. Every member is valued equally.
People with different views can have a say, debate and disagree while still working towards our common goals.
I believe it’s crucial that our grassroots democratic structures are defended, and decisions made at conference are respected.
In our party and more generally, we must speak to people we disagree with and listen seriously to their concerns.
We must also be clear about the line between political argument and the denigration of entire communities.
Whether you’re a Black boy sitting in a park, a Jewish family going to synagogue, a Muslim praying in a mosque, or someone who arrived in our country seeking safety from war and persecution, there should be no place in this country where you can’t live your life in peace and security.
You don’t have to become your neighbour. You don’t have to worship like them, vote like them or agree with them.
You do have to recognise their equal right to exist and belong. That should be the standard we set for the country, and for ourselves.
I am proposing a four-month dialogue, reflection and democratic renewal exercise reaching across the Green Party.
I hope this work will contribute to renewed trust and healing within the party whilst helping us strengthen how we debate, make decisions and care for members.
When I talked about a new way of doing politics, of accepting differences, and still finding a way forward, I was serious. I am starting this work now.
We want to build a country where we recognise that our shared interests outweigh the things that divide us.
Our party must lead by example and model the future we want to see.
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