The Green party has been accused of acting in a draconian and authoritarian way after a number of members were expelled for allegedly trying to support tactical voting to defeat Jeremy Hunt at the general election.
At least three members, two of them councillors, have been banned from the party until 2029. One of those expelled said it seemed to go directly against the Green values of internal party democracy and tolerance.
The row began before the election when Green members in Hunt’s Godalming and Ash seat in Surrey suggested standing down their candidate to give the Liberal Democrats, Hunt’s main challengers, a better chance of unseating the then chancellor.
Steve Williams, a Green councillor who was originally the candidate against Hunt, said the idea was hatched in part because the Lib Dem candidate, Paul Follows, had previously collaborated with the party.
In a secret ballot of the local party, which covers Hunt’s seat and two adjoining Surrey constituencies, members voted three-to-one in favour of Williams standing down but the candidates in the other seats remaining in place.
Williams said he formally withdrew a few days before the close of nominations, and told the Greens headquarters in England and Wales what the local party had decided.
“By 2pm the next day, I heard the news that another Green parliamentary candidate had been parachuted in,” he said. “I was shocked that, notwithstanding the commitment to stand in pretty well every constituency in the country, that they would override a local decision in such a draconian manner.”
The new candidate, Ruby Tucker, won 1,243 votes in the election. Hunt held on to his seat by just 891 votes, with the Lib Dems coming second.
Williams said that he, another local councillor called Clare Weightman, and a third member had since been told they were being expelled by the Greens, seemingly for allegedly supporting tactical voting so Hunt might lose.
Party notices sent to Williams and Weightman, seen by the Guardian, said they had “forfeited” their membership until 2029 for breaching a clause in the party constitution that prohibits members from standing against a Green or “campaigning for someone who is standing against a properly selected Green”.
Williams said he had been given no notice about an investigation or any chance to present evidence or appeal. He said that the grounds given for his expulsion were questionable, and for Weightman they were “inaccurate and inadequate”.
A strong supporter of tactical voting and alliances to get around the first past the post electoral system, Williams said he had been expelled from Labour in 2017 “under similar circumstances” but had expected different from the Greens.
“I feel this particularly acutely since I felt that I had found my political home in the Green party, which actually prided itself on values of democracy, tolerance and mutual respect,” he said.
Weightman said she felt “betrayal and deep sadness”, saying that she and Williams had gone to other constituencies to campaign for Greens in those.
A Green spokesperson said: “Green party members voted to stand a full slate of candidates at its final conference before the general election and this helped us secure a record number of votes and four MPs.
“In Godalming and Ash, there was a last-minute discussion of some members that didn’t override the wider national membership decision and so the Green party’s governance bodies took the decision to uphold the membership’s decision on candidacy. Green party members at conference hold the most senior decision-making power in the Green party on the basis of one member, one vote.”
