Mimicking Labour: more than 20 Green Party activists expelled or suspended in recent months is “without precedent”

The Green Party will hold a national conference this weekend as the autumn “conference season” kicks off for all UK parties.

By Alan Story

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The Green Party, once regarded in opinion polls as the UK’s “most liked” political party, is rapidly developing a reputation for having disciplinary procedures that are as authoritarian and unjust as those of Labour.

In recent months, more than 20 leading activists have been suspended or expelled ---- often without hearings or a chance to present evidence. The Greens face a number of lawsuits -- at least five according to one observer --- and the party’s disciplinary processes are “not fit for purpose”, a number of current and former Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) have told THE LEFT LANE in recent weeks.  (Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, co-leaders of the GPEW since October 2021, feature in the cover photo.)

The expulsions and suspensions, which are directed by the GPEW’s internal party machinery itself dominated by the party’s identity politics wing, are becoming increasingly severe. The campaign has been called “without precedent” in the GPEW’s history.  

This summer, three Green members from Surrey, two of them GPEW councillors, were expelled until 2029 --- a very long time in anyone’s book --- after devising a tactical voting plan that could have unseated Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt. Instead, Hunt narrowly retained his seat in the 4 July general election when the plan, approved by local Greens, was blocked by GP HQ in London. Disciplinary sentences were meted out as punishment. 

“MORALLY CORRUPT GOVERNANCE”

Green Party “governance has become to a significant extent both incompetent and considerably morally corrupt,” said long-time leading party activist Mike Shone in   his June 2024 letter of resignation. (A copy of Shone’s letter is reprinted below).

The conflict arises as the GPEW prepares for its conference on 6-8 September in Manchester. THE LEFT LANE will be there to report on the proceedings.

GPEW resignation numbers are definitely on the rise, but new members are also signing up. “We now have almost 60,000 members,” a GPEW press spokesperson told THE LEFT LANE today (4 Sept.)  

Some in the party are buoyed by its success in the general election when its number of MPs jumped from one to four. The GPEW’s total vote more than doubled over its 2019 levels, jumping to 1.84 million, its highest total ever.

But other Greens, especially those on the party’s left and those far more concerned with environmental matters rather than identity politics, are worried that the party is downplaying its campaigning on issues such as climate change after “2023 was the warmest year in the modern temperature record.”

They say as well the party is focusing almost exclusively on winning elections, and is becoming increasingly authoritarian in its internal party dynamics. (Below we look at the GPEW’s “gender issue”.)  

“I DON’T HAVE ANY BUDGET”

For example, I was quite shocked several years ago when I asked the GPEW’s head of campaigns about the size of the budget she had been allocated to campaign on what most people would think should be the Green’s signature issue: climate change. “Oh, I don’t have any budget, Alan,” she replied.  

It was during this period that the Young Greens group, which focuses almost entirely on identity politics, especially gay and transgender issues, began to receive tens of thousands of pounds from the GPEW to fund their own organisational and ideological priorities, a former senior GPEW official told THE LEFT LANE.

The Young Greens are today the powers that be in the GPEW universe and people such as co-leader Adrian Ramsay, known to be critical of this group’s political orientation, is cautious in criticising them. “He and others know spies and hostile networks are everywhere”, a party veteran told me this week in an interview.

WILL GREENS BACK CASS REVIEW?

Ramsay’s response to interventions of the Young Greens this weekend will be worth monitoring. One conference motion, # E21 which has been proposed by Dr. Shahrar Ali, calls for GPEW to give “unequivocal support for the recommendations of the 2024 independent review by Dr. Hilary Cass” which, among other things, endorses a ban on the prescribing of puberty blockers.  

Ramsay has come out in support of the Cass Review, but Denyer and former leader Sian Berry, who was elected in the Brighton seat of Caroline Lucas, have not. The Young Greens are 100% against the April 2024 Cass Review findings  and, reportedly, may mobilise internally against Ramsay over the puberty blockers issue.  

Most of the report by Cass, a retired paediatrician, has been supported by all UK political parties except the Greens. Cass says she has received “some "pretty vile" emails since her report was published and been advised not to use public transport for security reasons.

In the spring, a GPEW statement on Cass was briefly posted on the party’s website, but was quickly withdrawn after LGBTIQUA+ Greens said they opposed that statement and reportedly “threatened to remove their support for the party leaders in the general election.”  So the Cass issue remains unresolved.

Former GPEW deputy leader Dr. Shahrar Ali and his supporters after winning a discrimination law suit against the party in February 2024 over his gender critical views.

Ali’s court case showed that his stance in favour of the view that “"biology is real and immutable" has quite wide support inside and outside the ranks of the GPEW. To fund his case, which arose after he was sacked in 2022 as GPEW’s spokesperson for policing and domestic safety, Ali raised £116,463 from a total of 3491 donations.  

How much the party spent on its own legal costs is not known. If it loses further cases, the financial consequences could be quite severe for the party. .

While she was still party leader, Sian Berry led the campaign for Ali’s removal as a party spokesperson. Many regard Ali as the party’s leading orator now that Lucas has resigned as an MP. He is one of the few persons of colour in an overwhelming white party. The Young Greens are known to despise Shahrar Ali.  

Observers and party insiders agree that “the trans issue” will be one pressure point at this weekend’s conference. The issue or problem is a clash between sex-based rights and gender.

The issue causes controversy, however, when rights claimed by some trans people based on gender identity, impinge on rights based on biological sex, especially rights pertaining to women. Indeed, there is controversy over the use of the word “women” and what it means.

A document released 30 August on the “Green Light” website is titled “Tracking how the Green Party has become the party of the transgender movement.”  (Part 3 of the series is expected soon.)  A GPEW press spokesperson hesitated when asked today about that headline, but then claimed it was not accurate. “We have a broad appeal”, he said.    

There is wide support for “trans rights” in the Green Party and most of its members recognise that trans gender people do suffer oppression. (No doubt some GPEW members do not agree.)  

Meanwhile on other fronts, the GPEW leadership is erecting more and more barriers between the party and climate change activists as well as adopting a dismissive “we don’t know them “attitude.

NO MENTION ON AGENDA OF STIFF SENTENCES HANDED TO CLIMATE CHANGE  ACTIVISTS

Unexpectedly, the 186-page final agenda of conference resolutions contains no motions that address the four- and five-year prison sentences handed out last month to Just Stop Oil direct action campaigners. They received the “longest ever sentences for non-violent protest” after being convicted of conspiracy to cause public nuisance. Some party members TLL interviewed are perplexed that a discussion about these very severe sentences is not a leading item on the GPEW’s conference agenda.

Opposition to the work of direct action climate change activists has a history from within the Green Party itself. Several years ago one leading party activist, Ashley Routh of Sheffield, took direct action to oppose the actions of a group called “Burning Pink.”

A 1 Feb. 2023 report in the Real Media newsletter states:  

“The campaign [of Burning Pink] was heavily disrupted after Ashley Routh, a long-standing member of the Green Party …had infiltrated their Zoom meetings. The jury [at a trial of BP members]  were shown recordings of a meeting, in which Routh enthusiastically agreed to take part in an upcoming action, even though the number of other willing and available activists was in question. After the meeting, Routh handed over secretly-made recordings to the police, which led to raids and arrests.”

Last year, some eyebrows were raised in party circles about Routh’s undercover activities (and Caroline Lucas was consulted), but Routh emerged unscathed.

Routh is now co-chair of a leading party body, the Standing Orders Committee (SOC) --- which, among thing, established the conference agenda --- as well as being a member of the party’s most powerful committee, the Green Party Regional Council (GPRC).  

“Ashley Routh has a built-in conflict of interest by being on both the SOC and GPRC”, former GPRC co-chair Mike Shone of Staffordshire told THE LEFT LANE in an interview on 2 Sept.

A motion to forbid a person holding posts on both leading committees is on the agenda of this weekend’s conference. Why? The SOC acts as the party’s main judicial body and is required to rule on GPRC actions.    THE LEFT LANE was not able to contact Routh for a response. 

A TIME OF TRANSITION FOR THE GREENS?

Is it a time of transition for the Greens? Hoping to become a national electoral force, local Green Parties were required to field candidates in every single constituency in England and Wales. It was an expensive decision as hundreds of GPEW candidates lost their deposits.

Labour’s constitution requires it to run a candidate in every constituency and the Greens also want to be considered “a big party” … and so have mimicked the approach of Labour. Party insiders say running so many candidates was “a productive step”.

But some supporters of electoral reform argue that the money would have been far better spent campaigning for electoral reform. The Green Party is severely punished by our first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting system. Moreover, no Green Party anywhere in the world has become a serious political player unless its jurisdiction uses a proportional representation (PR) voting system. Seats won match votes cast under a PR and in the 4 July election Greens won a mere .6% of the seats on 6.4% of total vote. That is totally undemocratic by a factor of ten.

With Labour’s increasing shift to the right and after receiving the endorsement of long-time Labour member and Guardian columnist Owen Jones , the Greens are hoping to carve out a space as the UK’s party of the left.

In the 186-page conference pack I did not find a single referenced to the word “socialism.”  The GPEW has far more members who are small business owners than trade union activists.

The record number of expulsions by the Greens will dismay many on the Labour left --- past or current --- who will conclude it is taking a leaf out of Keir Starmer’s playbook. Disagree with a member? Not like a tweet posted five years ago? Expel them. 

NO KUDOS FOR PRAISING BIDEN

Co-leader Carla Denyer did not win any kudos when she sent out a press release on 21 July praising Joe Biden for stepping down and not re-offering as a presidential candidate in 2024.

While many on the left, including me, regard Biden as Netanyahu’s “main man” and very blameworthy for the Israeli genocide of more than 40,000 Palestinians, Denyer thanked him sycophantically “for his many years of public service” and for showing “a true sign of leadership”. Amazingly, Denyer did not even mention Palestine. (She was soon forced to retract the release after receiving a torrent of criticism from many, including Owen Jones).

Mimicking Labour’s policy of running candidates in each and every constituency was part of the reason for the 4 July conflict in Surrey already mentioned. Certainly Steve Williams of Surrey, once a Labour Party member and until recently a Green councillor in this area, is not pleased by the Green’s direction of travel.

Williams was selected as the GPEW candidate in the Godlaming and Ash constituency for the 4 July vote. But when local Greens and local Lib Dems did the maths, they realised sitting MP Jeremy Hunt could likely be defeated if one of the two candidates stood down. So Williams stepped down and both parties decided to get behind the LibDem candidate, who had quite good green credentials, through tactical voting.

But tactical voting is strongly opposed by the Greens. The party’s national office parachuted in a replacement candidate and Williams, as well as two other Greens, were expelled until the year 2029.              

Added together on 4 July, the Green and Lib Dem vote in Hunt’s Surrey seat of Godalming and Ash exceeded that of Hunt.

Williams told THE LEFT LANE today that he had expected a different approach from the Greens than from Labour. “I feel this particularly acutely since I felt I had found my political home in the Green Party”. But “instead intolerance is being bred into the party” by various groups, including the all-powerful GPRC, which expelled him and two others for a very long stretch.

Williams is currently appealing his expulsion and the case will be raised at a 7 September session put on by the campaign group Compass at the Manchester GPEW conference.   

THE GPEW’S ROTTEN DISCIPLINARY PROCESS 

Yet some of those who have been active for years in the grass roots of GPEW are not surprised that the Greens are more and more becoming an echo, still a small scale echo, of Labour, and consider it mythical that it is a particularly “friendly” or “nice” party. (The poll mentioned at the start of this article found the Greens to be the “most liked political party” in the UK was conducted by YouGov in 2018 when 41% of those polled held a favourable view of the Greens.)

Williams told me it is “sad” the Greens are following in Labour’s authoritarian footsteps.   

The GPEW’s disciplinary processes match those of Labour for slowness, arbitrariness, and lack of transparency. Rather than a dispassionate judicial or disciplinary process, they are blatantly political mechanisms used, time after time, to “deep six” and side line political opponents and other party members who hold views you disagree with.

Trust me: I taught intellectual property law for 17 years at two UK universities. GPEW disciplinary processes have about as much to do with justice and following rules as Donald Trump has to do with feminism.

And they are particularly cowardly processes. Say party member “A” has a complaint against party member “B”. “A” never needs to talk to “B” about resolving the matter. Instead, all that “A” has to do is fill in a form claiming, with an untested version of events, that “B” did such and so. Then, presto, “B” can be bounced from the party for months or years and the mates of “A” are often the decision makers on the complaint of “A.”

It is a recipe for factions, cynicism, and deep resentment…and visits to mental health professionals.

Sheffield Green Party members protesting at the end of May against the discriminatory exclusion of Alison Teal as the GPEW candidate in the 4 July election.

The Alison Teal case in Sheffield has been the most high-profile GPEW disciplinary matter of recent months. THE LEFT LANE did a full report on 29 May and it became the most-viewed Substack column we have produced in eight months. (A second short report covered the ensuing protest.)

In brief: Teal was selected in September 2022 by Sheffield Green Party members to be the GPEW candidate in the constituency of Sheffield Central where she had run in 2019. As a result of a tweet, Teal was called “transphobic” and immediately suspended. Former GPEW leader and now House of Lords member Natalie Bennett refused to attend a session where Teal’s nomination was to be confirmed.

The suspension case dragged on and on and on without any formal hearings and without Teal having a chance to reply. And so a total of 19 months later when Rishi Sunak called the recent election, Teal was still suspended. What to do? Pick a different candidate, ruled GPRC (which had already ruled in other cases and declared many other GP feminists to be transphobic; it is a Council filled with many people who themselves made complaints about TERFs and “transphobes” in the GPEW.)

Predictably, Teal ran as an independent candidate on 4 July. She was expelled, as were a few supporters, as well as one friend (and NOT a campaign team member) who happened to be chatting with Teal and had her photo taken by a passing GP member. That shows just how toxic the trans issue has become in the Greens.

It is no exaggeration to say that there is a major “purge” under way in both the Green Party of England and Wales and the totally separate Scottish Green Party. In the GPEW alone there have been more than 20 expulsions and suspensions.

THE WORDING OF “END THE PURGE” MOTION

There is not the space here to give the names and details and backgrounds of these 20 cases. In July, Brig Outbridge of Salisbury prepared and submitted a motion titled “End the Purge”, that begins:

“This Conference notes, deplores and is appalled by the on-going campaign of mass suspensions and expulsions from the Party carried out by a majority of members of the Green Party Regional Council (GPRC) against members, many of whom are of long-standing and distinguished service within the Party, who have supported women’s sex-based rights, and/or opposed the medical abuse of children and young people as exposed by the Cass Report, and/or even sought to discuss these issues or allowed others to discuss these issues, or have supported other members who have been victims of this mass suspension and expulsion campaign” .

The motion goes on to list the names of members from Green Party Women, Green Party Seniors as well as individuals who have been kicked out in this “campaign without precedent” in the GPEW’s 50-year history. The motion calls for their bans on membership to be revoked immediately.

The full 1155-word motion can be found here: 

But due to a technicality, the motion will not be discussed at the GPEW conference and both the GPRC and SOC will escape scrutiny by members.

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A comment for Carla D and Adrian R:

The GPEW is facing a SERIOUS political problem over these expulsions. Political problems don’t go away by burying them or resorting to administrative measures such as the SOC saying a motion can’t be discussed because it does not have sufficient names attached. In any event, there is a serious conflict of interest over this.

Show “some true leadership”. Let Brig’s motion be debated by your members this weekend.  

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I have just got off a phone call with a long-time Green Party activist.

“You remember, Alan, how the Labour Party got itself worked up for many months over anti-semitism…or alleged anti-semitism to be more accurate. There was a lot of emotionalism, a lot of false charges were filed (and a few genuine ones), and the party erupted in anger as points were scored and opponents were kicked out. But very little light was directed at the real issues.”     

“Is that how the alleged transphobia ‘outbreak’ in the Greens will play out as well?” she wondered.  I wonder it as well.   

The next chapter in this disruptive saga starts 6 September. Note: tickets are no longer available.     

  +++++++++++

“Factional Identity Politics zealotry dominating”: Shone

Letter of resignation from Green Party of England and Wales  

15 June 2024 

For the attention of the Chief Executive of the Green Party:  Mary Clegg

Dear CEO:

Though I still believe that the Green Party is potentially the best Party for the planet and social justice, I cannot continue as a member. This is because Governance has become to a significant extent both incompetent and considerably morally corrupt.

A victimisation culture is operating in Governance denying free speech and not operating according to natural justice.

As the former GPRC Co-Chair who co-ordinated the establishment of  the Disciplinary Committee and its associated Standing Orders , I am appalled to see anonymous complaints granted so-called No Fault Suspensions against exemplary members by a clearly factional Identity Politics zealotry dominating GRPC  (as well as dominating SOC and DC.) 

My place is now to campaign for restoration of decency in the Party with de-selected Green Party candidate Alison Teal for Sheffield Central.

I hope to return one day but that will not be until there is a return to progressive values and the prioritising of the ecological crises.

Mike Shone

Cannock Chase Green Party 

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CHECK THIS OUT:

Upcoming this Saturday in London.   

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The Starmer government has announced it will make a minor reduction in UK arms sales to Israel.

The UK’s leading parodist on the left, Laura K, gives her reaction in a Substack titled:

“UK suspends 8% of arms licences with Israel, but leaves other 92% in place

We wouldn't want to get carried away, would we? “

You can read it here :

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