Three key things to learn from the Green Party leadership election of 2021

The Green Party of England and Wales' leadership election of 2021, which yesterday concluded with the election of Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay as the new co-leaders of the Green Party, was the most interesting and competitive such contest since the Green Party introduced the leader and deputy leader model in 2008 to replace Principal Speakers.

What key conclusions can be drawn from this leadership election, you ask? Here are my top three:

1. Moderation generally wins. As with the 2020 Green Party leader and deputy leader elections, the divisive topic of "gender politics" came to the fore. Neither candidate who took a hardline stance on the issue won the election, whereas Adrian & Carla, who did not mention the issue as much, did. Furthermore, in the second round they achieved nearly treble as many transfers (from Shahrar Ali, Tina Rothery & Martin Hemingway, and Ashley Gunstock, who were eliminated in round 1) as Amelia Womack & Tamsin Omond did.

2. The Progressive Alliance idea will not be revived anytime soon. Only one of the Green Party leadership candidates-Ashley Gunstock- supported continuation of the Progressive Alliance (which in 2017 involved Greens standing down for Labour or Liberal Democrat candidates in theoretically marginal seats; this favour was not returned) or variants thereof, and he finished last. Both the Progressive Alliance and the Unite to Remain Alliance of the 2017 and 2019 general elections respectively failed to make any significant impact. It is clear there is no longer any significant support for this idea.

3. Endorsements do not guarantee success. Carla & Adrian were endorsed by Caroline Lucas MP and 5 out of 9 former Green MEPs, but even with such high-profile endorsements their 1st preference vote share was 43.9%, well short of the 50%+1 needed to win in round 1; they had to rely on transfers in round 2 to win the election. Prominent environmental columnist George Monbiot, along with some Green Party councillors, endorsed Amelia & Tamsin, but this did not swing the result overall.

Comments

  1. Anonymous13 September 2022 at 13:22

    Carla and Adrian did not indeed " mention" their support for party policy on Trans Rights adopted in 2016, but they now have to seriously deal with all the evidence of bullying and harassment caused by " the issue" as published in Diverse Matters' Audit of the party's Equality and Diversity. How they extricate themselves from the hole they are in remains to be seen ...

    ReplyDelete

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