THERE is still a “mature and friendly” relationship between the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) and the Scottish Greens despite formal ties being cut between the parties nearly two years ago, a new MP has said.
In October 2022, Scottish Green members voted to suspend formal association with their sister party until the GPEW addressed “both issues of transphobia and respect for the Scottish Green Party, our independence as a party, and the devolution settlement".
The two parties have always been separate organisations but the suspension of ties meant GPEW members would not be able to automatically attend certain meetings of the Scottish Greens. The Scottish Greens said the motion passed wouldn't stop discussion between the two parties.
Siân Berry, who was a Green member of the London Assembly at the time and is now an MP, said she was saddened by the move but added the party had “many problems left to solve” and the decision “has its basis”.
A year before the vote, Berry stepped down as the party’s co-leader, citing an internal party conflict over transgender rights and stating there is “an inconsistency between the sincere promise to fight for trans rights and inclusion in my work and the message sent by the party’s choice of frontbench representatives”.
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday National, Berry was asked if there was still solidarity between the parties, particularly following the Green Party’s success in getting four MPs elected to the Commons for the first time.
Berry said: “Yes. It was a disagreement between friends.
“We’ve always been separate parties, but we all recognise the actions of one can affect the other, particularly in reputational terms.
“There was a motion passed that was very critical of the Green Party of England and Wales and we looked at that really carefully.
“We accepted that they were perfectly entitled to criticise us in the way they did and do take that seriously. It was not unlike the reason I stopped being co-leader of the party. We have to have these conversations; we can’t always just present a sunny face to the world.
“But it’s a mature and friendly relationship and certainly the co-leaders of the Scottish Green Party, we have huge respect for them personally, they are fantastic.”
Asked if anybody in the Scottish Greens had been in touch since the General Election, Berry (above) added: “Yes, they offer all kinds of support and briefing.”
One becomes four
BERRY replaced Caroline Lucas in the Brighton Pavilion seat in the General Election earlier this month but, instead of remaining the sole Green MP as Lucas did for 14 years, Berry was joined by three others as the party produced a stunning performance that few anticipated.
Former MEP Ellie Chowns delivered one of the most surprising results of the evening as she took North Herefordshire with a swing of more than 32% to her party away from the Tories.
The Tories had held the seat since 1906 and their candidate had been the MP there for almost a quarter of a century.
Chowns and Berry were joined in the Commons by the party’s co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, marking the first time both co-leaders were elected to Parliament.
Ramsay produced an equally staggering result to Chowns in gaining the East Anglian seat of Waveney Valley, a new constituency made from parts of five ultra-safe Conservative seats - including one that had been Tory since Victorian times.
Chowns told the Sunday National she was “humbled” by what looked like an encouraging landscape in her constituency turned into a resounding win for her party.
She said: “It was something I’d been working for together with my team for way over a year, so I felt hopeful, but I had no idea whether we would win.
“During the campaign, the constituency was covered in wonderful bright green poster boards so the support looked strong on the ground which was really encouraging but you never know until the day.
“It’s an immense privilege and I’m so humbled the people of North Herefordshire put their faith in me.”
Every rose has its thorn
HOWEVER, there is an element of deep frustration among Green politicians in the Commons that the voting system means they do not reap what they sow.
If the additional member system was used in General Elections, the Greens would have 42 MPs, according to the Electoral Reform Society. Instead, a vote share of 6.8% translated into just 0.6% of MPs.
Meanwhile, Ed Davey’s LibDems won 18 times the number of seats that the Greens did despite only recording double their vote share.
As for Labour, their vote share was around six times that of the Greens, but they have more than 100 times the MPs.
Chowns (above) said she will be campaigning hard for electoral reform after seeing how desperate people were to see their vote count in her constituency.
She said: “There was a sense in North Herefordshire that people were really looking for something they could feel proud to vote for. They felt their vote had been taken for granted for many years. I think there was a sense our campaign was a breath of fresh air.
“We have a terribly unfair voting system. If we had the number of MPs that our number of votes should translate into proportionally, we would have 40.
“In that sense it’s very frustrating in that we have such an inequitable voting system still and one of the key issues I’m going to be campaigning on in this parliament is for electoral reform and more proportional representation.”
Berry added: “It isn’t healthy for a party with a minority of the votes to have such a majority of the power.
“[Labour are] in a honeymoon phase now but when the going gets tough we’ll see the impact of that on scrutiny.
“There are bad ideas they could have [that] they could push through so easily now and to rely on the unelected Lords to save us from that just feels so wrong.
“I think it will eventually feel like it hasn’t been a good way to do politics.”
A Scottish Greens spokesperson said: “The decision taken at our conference in 2022 suspended the automatic right of GPEW members to attend Scottish Greens meetings. This was due to concerns about transphobic behaviour by some GPEW members.
"But our position has always been that we will work with anyone seeking to pass progressive policies that will tackle the climate emergency, build a fairer, greener country, and advance LGBTQ rights. We are of course delighted to see more Green MPs at Westminster like Sian Berry, who has been a consistent and passionate ally to the trans community.”
