The Green’s cull continues. Now it is a GP who served as the party’s spokesperson on Health.

An in-depth report on the politics – hidden and open --- at the party’s 6-8 September annual conference.

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By Alan Story

The just-completed annual Green Party conference was a tale of two conferences.

There was what happened outside --- in the mainstream media, in meetings of the party’s executive and its disciplinary committee, and the unusual sight of banned former members, known as “Greens in Exile”, protesting at the entrance to Manchester Central convention centre once named, coincidentally, as the “G-MEX CENTRE.”       .

On the other hand, there was what happened inside --- in party plenaries, in fringe sessions, and at the lectern in what some would call “inspirational speeches” from party leaders to as many as 900 members. This included a reported 500 new Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) members, buoyed by the party’s success in electing four MPs during the 4 July general election.     .

A RATHER NAIVE EXPECTATION

The fervent wish of GPEW officials? That never the twain would meet. And above all else, make sure that significant outside developments did not spoil the party’s celebration party inside.  

It is, of course, a rather naive expectation.   

Because what happened outside will, in the long run, likely be far more consequential for the party’s future than the inside conference deliberations conducted in the darkness of unknowingness. The party is sinking deeper and deeper into the morass of identify politics, individualism and internal control freakery at a time when the wider world faces growing crises…and too many to list here.  

Among the critical developments (and developments that most of those inside the conference knew nothing about and had no chance to debate):     

1) Just two days before the conference began, the party’s health spokesman, Dr. Pallavi Devulapalli ---- a GP based in Norfolk --- was sacked by the Green Party Disciplinary Committee and its most powerful body, the Green Party Regional Council (GPRC). (Dr. Devulapalli is featured in the cover photo of today’s THE LEFT LANE; see also below for an exclusive interview.)

“FLABBERGASTED” BY SACKING  

The party’s Health spokesperson for two years and a GP for 19 years, Dr. Devulapalli says she was “flabbergasted” when she got the sacking email. What was this all about? There is, she says, a “biological reality” about sex. “It’s not a view, it’s not an opinion. The fact that the earth is round is not my opinion,” she told THE LEFT LANE.

But that’s not the line of those now controlling the Green Party ---- call them ‘the flat earth brigade’ if you will --- and she was out the door immediately on 4 September based on an anonymous complaint.    

INVESTIGATION OF GPEW’S DISCIPLINE SYSTEM.

2) Given the fact that more than 20 Green Party activists have been expelled or suspended in recent months --- see last week’s THE LEFT LANE for full details---- the party’s national executive committee, known as  GPEX, took the unusual step on 3 September of establishing an independent investigation inquiry into the GPEW’s disciplinary process.

The increasingly destructive “war” over identity politics inside the GPEW has centred on these suspensions and expulsions.

But former Green leader and Brighton Pavilion MP Sian Berry downplayed these incidents and told TIMES RADIO on 7 September that they were expelled for unspecified “conduct”.

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay

BBC INTERVIEW WITH RAMSAY WORTH A LISTEN.

3) Meanwhile current party co-leader Adrian Ramsay appeared on BBC Five Live radio on Friday 6 September at the night owl time of 11:55 p.m. for a hard-nosed and lengthy interview … and just hours after giving a welcoming speech at the convention. This is a copy of that interview. Start listening at 59 minutes, 20 seconds; it is worth your time.

In the interview, BBC listeners learned what Ramsay had NOT told party members hours earlier nor had any party committees reported to them on that Friday ( and nor would they do so on the Saturday or Sunday.)

This is when it started to twig that this was going to be “a tale of two conferences.”     

Yes, Ramsay confirmed to interviewer Stephen Nolan, Dr.  Devulapalli had been sacked. And yes, there is to be a full inquiry into the GPEW’s disciplinary processes.

Unlike Sian Berry, Ramsay, who was elected 4 July as an MP in the new Waveney Valley constituency in the east of England, expressed genuine sympathy for Devulapalli’s plight.

Explaining that her suspension was “surprise news to me”, Ramsay called her “a valued colleague” and said they had worked together on various occasions.

Asked point blank if he thought one of the alleged grounds upon which Devulapalli was suspended ---- namely, for expressing the personal view as a GP candidate that “there is no trans-hate in society in general” ---- justified her suspension three days earlier, Ramsay replied: “No.”

Asked further by Nolan if he agreed with Dr. Devulapalli’s stance that “biology is a real thing, it is not a belief”, Ramsay answered without hesitation, “Yes.”

Taking such a stand on BBC Radio on both matters was a gutsy move, even if it after midnight on a talk radio station.

It puts Ramsay directly in conflict --- and in public conflict --- with the party’s two most powerful committees, the GPRC --- which had confirmed Dr. Devulapalli’s sacking --- and the Standing Orders Committee (SOC). He is also in conflict with Berry, who was his predecessor as GPEW leader.

[As an aside: THE LEFT LANE asked another new Green MP, Ellie Chowns, if she wanted to be interviewed about the biology and sex issue and about Ramsay’s BBC Radio interview. “No”, Chowns said, and she walked off rapidly. New Green MP Carla Denyer, GPEW’s co-leader, was reportedly sick and did not attend the conference. As we will see later in this article, Denyer usually sides with Berry on such issues.]

The Greens in Exile protesting outside GPEW Manchester conference

THE PROTEST BY GREENS IN EXILE

4) Ramsay also diverged from other leading figures who were present --- namely, Berry, former leaders Natalie Bennett and retiring MP Caroline Lucas --- and went outside the conference hall to chat amicably with the “Greens in Exile” protesters.

About 20 women and a few men --- mostly expelled members ---- put on an effective protest on all three days of the conference. Some came from as far as Suffolk, London, and Newcastle. They passed out almost 1000 effective leaflets, talked at length to many conference goers, and have created an informative website.

They stress six issues: the importance of free speech in the party, the need for open debate and good governance, having science-based policy, support for women’s sex-based rights, and safeguarding all party members from abuse.  

Recently formed, these Greens may be “in exile”, but they show no signs of fading from the political front lines. A number of its members are in the process of funding law suits to be filed against the party in coming months.

Dr. Devulapalli told THE LEFT LANE on Monday that she “has not decided yet” whether she will bring a lawsuit against the GPEW for her suspension and resulting dismissal. “I want to give them a bit of time partly because Adrian (Ramsay) has stuck his neck out,” she said.

Former GPEW deputy leader Shahrar Ali

FORMER DEPUTY LEADER ALI SUSPENDED

5) Former deputy Green Party leader Shahrar Ali also shows no signs of fading away. In February 2024, Ali won a widely-funded lawsuit against the GPEW; a judge found he had been discriminated against for his “gender critical” views.

In 2022, Ali was the first party spokesperson to be suspended in recent years, primarily through the efforts of then leader Sian Berry. So Dr. Devulapalli is the second party spokesperson to be suspended and essentially on the same grounds, namely for stating that there is a “biological reality” about sex.

But the plot thickens and this is where the conduct of the conference was implicated. Last month, Ali had a motion accepted on the conference agenda. He wanted to speak to in Manchester and have this motion on the Cass Review passed by the party. (More on Cass below).    

But Ali’s attendance proved impossible. In one other noteworthy “outside the conference tale”, Ali was suspended from the GPEW two weeks ago --- again as endorsed by the GPRC --- and hence he was barred from attending on the basis of what he called “a wholly vexatious complaint.”

So both Ali and Devulapalli were prevented from attending the Manchester conference by the all-powerful GPRC.

For his part, Ali said in a 6 Sept. tweet about the sacking of Dr. Devulapalli: “Wow, just wow! Green Party totally out of control….A more compassionate, reasonable and articulate Green you are unlikely to find.”

THE FORCES BEHIND THE +20 SUSPENSIONS

Before we get to what happened ---- or, more accurately, what did NOT happen inside the GPEW conference --- we need to return to the circumstances of Dr. Devulapalli’s suspension and to understand the ideological and organisational forces behind it.

Earlier in the summer, Pallavi Devulapalli was the GPEW’s candidate against Liz Truss in South West Norwich. In answer to a question at a Friends of the Earth hustings in mid-June, she said “I’ve yet to meet anyone that actually says somebody should not have the right to be addressed as they please and to dress as they please… I really think there is something mischievous in the air to make those out to be an issue….The confusion arises when people start conflating sex with gender.”

No complaint was made at the time. A video of the entire hustings has been online for more than two months; you can view it here. 

She only heard of the anonymous complaint on 4 September in an email that suspended her immediately. The co-chair of the LGBTQIA + Greens group was quoted as saying her sacking showed the GPEW’s disciplinary system was “working a little more efficiently.”

On 6 September, BBC News headlined its story as “GREENS SUSPEND HEALTH SPOKESPERSON OVER TRANS REMARKS” and the media more generally is portraying the more than 20 suspended/expelled GPEW members, including those in “Greens in Exile” (GIE) as being opposed to “trans rights”.      

NOT ANTI-TRANSGENDER

This is extremely misleading and creates a false binary. I have interviewed a number of GIE members. They are not anti- trans. They recognise transgender people experience forms of oppression and discrimination in this society.

What they do oppose, however, are trans groups --- and non-trans people supporting them are --- trying to roll back and exclude women from exercising their sex-based rights. These include the right to be recognised as women, the right to have their intimate care needs met by other women carers, the right to “women only” domestic violence shelters, the right to have a woman heading the Green Party Women group, and so on. 

What GIE supporters also oppose is another type of exclusion, their own exclusion from the GPEW, and the increasingly dubious and undemocratic ways certain supposed “trans rightists” are acting within the GPEW to silence and side-line GIE members and others.     

In short, say GIE supporters: You can have your views. We just want our views and rights respected as well.

An analogy with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement may be helpful to explain the bitter conflict. BLM said (and says): “Fully respect and enhance our rights as Black Britons or African Americans.”  

BLM does NOT say: “we don’t respect your rights as white people” or “we want to exclude you from exercising those rights.”

The problem is that, in recent years, a significant number of transgender people (and endorsers of a certain view of “transgenderism) have not only joined the GPEW --- and, of course, no Green is opposed to that per se --- but that a clique of such people (and their powerful allies in the GPEW) are more and more acting in a high-handed and exclusionary fashion. Promoting identity politics appears their main mission. 

This clique or faction --- which I will call here the “Trans Exclusionary” faction (TE) --- is now in control of the GPRC (the party’s most powerful committee), the Standing Orders Committee ( which is the GPEW’s judicial committee, decides the conference agenda and picks what motions are heard) , as well as the Disciplinary Committee. This gives this faction, as we shall see in a moment, a triple lock on power in the GPEW.

The TE faction runs the Young Greens group. TE also includes MP Berry. Co-leader Carla Denyer, a former Young Green herself, is also very sympathetic. The TE faction is one of her main personal power bases within the party as it was for Berry when she was leader until 2022.  

WHAT DID NOT HAPPEN INSIDE THE GPEW CONFERENCE

The extent of the power exerted by the TE faction and their allies is revealed by what was excluded from the conference deliberations. Here is a short list:

1) a motion titled “End the Purge” --- you can read it here ---- received more than 60 signatures prior to the conference. The 1,150-word, comprehensive motion was very critical of the GPRC for “the purge” of more than 20 GPEW activists, including those now forced into GIE.  The motion called for all GPRC members to “stand down”.  

But the powerful Standing Orders Committee (SOC), the party’s untrained legal advisors chosen by less than 1% of GPEW membership, refused to allow the “End the Purge” motion to be included in the 180-page conference book of motions. Why? Could it because of the fact that two of the five members of SOC are also members of the GPRC, the committee being sharply chastised in the motion for the many suspensions? Could it be because key SOC and GPRC members are also leading members of the party’s TE faction?  

It is sort of like having a few judges on the Supreme Court also serve as members of Keir Starmer’s cabinet. Those judges would have a clear conflict of interest if a case came before that court criticising Starmer’s government and these cabinet members/ judges in particular.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST ARE IRRELEVANT

But in the Green Party’s court, the SOC, conflicts of interest are an irrelevance. Indeed, marking your own homework is seen as perfectly proper in the Green’s universe.   

It gets worse. The proposer of this purge motion, Brig Oubridge, challenged the SOC’s blocking action. But Oubridge was himself then ruled out of order on instructions from SOC on 6 Sept. Once again, GPEW members attending were never given a chance to read the hard-hitting motion.        

Upon learning on Saturday (7 Sept.) via BBC Radio that the party’s executive had ordered an inquiry into the GPRC-controlled disciplinary process, Oubridge tried one last attempt. He drew up a new emergency motion that called for “all current suspensions to be reversed pending the result of the inquiry.”

More than 50 Greens signed it for inclusion in the conference’s emergency motion slot and he submitted it for discussion. But the SOC and GPRC made sure it never surfaced.

“They are just very afraid of what might come out, “Oubridge told THE LEFT LANE.

2) We don’t need to deal with another suppressed motion in such detail.

Briefly: some Greens are quite incensed by such undemocratic functioning in their party and appreciate that having the same people on both the SOC and GPRC is a downright bad idea.

So motion D14 titled “Conflicts of interest - joint membership of SOC and GPRC” was drafted and submitted. It states that “for anyone to be members of both bodies risks conflicts of interests and an inappropriate concentration of power and influence.”

That seems to be a pretty common sense and democratic approach.

The approach of SOC and GPRC members? Make sure this motion is not discussed at a plenary. And it was not.

I have a notebook full of examples of such crassness and suppression of debate. But this article is already very lengthy and to make a sure it doesn’t reach “War and Peace” proportions, I will deal with only one more motion.

3) Opinion is divided in the Green Party over the Cass Review, an April 2024 report that, among things, calls for an end to giving out puberty blockers to young people.

Every major political party in the UK has endorsed Cass. So have party co-leader Ramsay and now former Health spokesperson Dr. Devupalli, as well many others in the party. But Berry and Denyer have not and the TE faction is dead set against Cass.  

Over the summer, Shahrar Ali prepared a very detailed and coherent motion on Cass that was fully supportive of that review; in all likelihood, Ali’s motion # E21 would have passed in a plenary session on 6-8 Sept.

But then the GPEW “triple lock” --- SOC, GPRC and the Disciplinary Committee ---- went into action. Two weeks ago and out of the blue, Ali was suspended. Two days before the conference began, Health spokesperson Devupalli was suspended as well. Neither could therefore attend to support the Cass motion.  

And then for good measure, the SOC and GPRC made sure the motion never made it to the floor.

++++++++++++++

Watching all these proceedings for three days ---- both inside and outside the conference centre ---  raises lots of questions about the future of the Green Party. Here are four:  

Is the party going to get more and more obsessed about identity politics?

Is the party prepared to lose hundreds of members, especially long-term members, from its environmental wing and forfeit the voluntary and unpaid work of those not prepared to put up with further organisational antics witnessed in Manchester and those exposed here? Will talented people like Dr. Devulapalli want to serve?

Will Adrian Ramsay be able to clean up the Green’s rancid disciplinary system and will it require some kind of remedial action among the party’s fractured leadership?

Is the Green Party about to face more expensive law suits if it keeps breaking the laws against discrimination…and will that lead to further hikes in monthly fees for members?

+++++++   

Former party leader and now House of Lords member Natalie Bennett ( who lives in France but calls herself Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle, a working class district of Sheffield) has recently brought out a book titled “CHANGE EVERYTHING: How we can rethink, repair and rebuild society.” (This is not to be confused with Naomi Klein’s radical 2014 book: “THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING: capitalism vs. the climate.)

What was on display --- and NOT on display ---- on the past weekend in Manchester was certainly not a change of everything about our politics, but rather simply a knockoff of decades of Toryism and Labourism.

(Thanks to all those who helped prepare this lengthy article. Comments most welcome below. )

++++++++++++++++++++

AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. PALLAVI DEVUPALLI, FORMER HEALTH SPOKESPERSON FOR THE GREEN PARTY

On Monday 9 September, THE LEFT LANE had a lengthy interview on Zoom with Dr. Pallavi Devupalli of Norfolk. This is an edited version of that interview.

THE LEFT LANE (TLL): So how are you feeling Pallavi?

Dr. Pallavi Devulapalli (PD): Just disheartened, despondent betrayed, angry, and sad.

TLL: What has this incident told you about how the Green Party functions?

PD: I feel there's no robust governance within the Green Party. That’s my impression. Things seem to happen on the basis of very little to go on. Very serious action is being taken on things that could be dealt with in a different way.

TLL: How did you hear you’d had been sacked as the Green Party health spokesperson?

PD:  On Wednesday afternoon (4 September), I was taking a quick five minutes break from work, and as you do, I opened my emails. I just couldn't believe my eyes. There was an email from the (Green Party) complaints manager. I then learned that apparently someone had complained to the Eastern region rep of the GPRC (Green Party Regional Council) and he felt obliged and duty bound to refer me.

I was just speechless. I was flabbergasted. I think I was in a state of shock, actually and it took me a day or two to actually understand what had happened.

TLL: Do you know who complained?

PD: No. It was anonymous.

TLL: So you are no longer the GPEW’s health spokesperson. Are you still a GP councillor?

PD: As of today, I have written to my council here (in West Norfolk) and said that I'm now sitting as an independent councillor.

TLL – Do you think this suspension was fair?

PD: I have every sympathy for the person who complained about what I said at the hustings. They're entitled to their view. I should add that nobody complained at the hustings. Nobody came up. I had no idea this complaint had gone in.

A while ago I was in the thick of writing Covid policy as we were first party in the country to have a Covid policy, and I chaired that working group and we pushed policy through. Over a few months we created a whole policy from scratch with expert guidance. We had an expert panel on it and put it through all the bureaucracy of the party and got it ratified. And obviously there were huge expectations on me as spokesperson.

So I feel betrayed. The suspension feels so unnecessary. Do you know what I mean? It feels so disproportionate. I mean the mind boggles. It was my opinion (at the hustings). Of course I'm entitled to my opinion, just as the complaint is to theirs. I did nothing wrong. I stand by every single word I said at that hustings, but I would have more than happily clarified to anyone who asked me if they'd been offended by something I said. I would have happily sat down with them and clarified what I said, and see where we could find common ground.

TLL: What did you do for the party during before and during the recent elections?

DN: I worked my socks off before the election, representing the Green Party both nationally as health spokesperson and, locally during the election in South West Norfolk (where she was a candidate against Liz Truss.) 

I campaigned in Waveney Valley (for Adrian Ramsay).  I went down to London and fielded the media on our health policy. I've been working like crazy defending our health policy on Twitter. I attended hustings in London for the Asian network. I attended online hustings for the carers. I spoke to numerous pressure groups.

I got no support from the party officially. I didn't have people looking at my emails. I was getting hundreds of emails from campaign up and down the country.

I have given so much of my free time to this party, you know, apart from being a very busy GP and a mom to two teenagers. It's a busy life.

TLL: How long have you been doing this role?

PD: I've been Health spokesperson for about 2 years.

TLL: Have there been any complaints about your work as health spokesperson?

PD: No, never. In fact, after doing all this, I had nothing but praise. I've had so many lovely emails, especially after hustings in Downham (Market). I had people, complete strangers, writing to me and saying how great it was to hear me. How refreshing they found it, you know, gaining new followers, if you like. One person actually visited a whole village for me. She insisted that she had to do something to help my election effort.

TLL: Do you know Adrian Ramsay (GPEW leader and newly elected MP for nearby Waveney Valley)

PD: Yes, Adrian is a good friend.  I think there's a mutual respect.

TLL: What did you think of the Stephen Nolan interview?

PD: It didn't surprise me in the least. That's the Adrian I know, a man who is able to be honest and stick by people that he has worked with. He knows me to the extent that he knows there's nothing malicious in me, and that I would never be that way. 

TLL: What is your overall conclusion?

PD: I have a number of thoughts.  Here are two. You can't deny the biological reality of sex. You know, it's not a view. It's not an opinion. The fact that the earth is round is not my opinion. Second, I think that it is timidity from the people who hold the levers of power (in the Green Party) that has led to this overall bad situation.

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