When I announced recently that I won’t be standing in this summer’s elections for the Green party’s leadership, many people wanted to know why. My answer is that I’ve always been guided by the question: “How can I make the biggest positive impact?”. I’m so proud of what Adrian Ramsay and I have accomplished over the past three and a half years: taking our party from one MP to four, from 450 councillors to more than 850, and growing and diversifying our membership. Having achieved what I set out to do, I’ve decided that for the next few years, I’ll pour all my skills, passion and energy into being the best MP I can be for my constituents in Bristol Central, using my seat in parliament to fight for the changes this country needs.
Since becoming an MP in July last year, I have found my ikigai – a Japanese concept describing the intersection of work that you love, you’re good at, and is what the world needs. There’s plenty I don’t love about how parliament works, but I feel incredibly motivated to be a voice asking “why can’t it be better?”, and a pair of hands working with others to try to build a better country. I joined the Green party because I wanted to change the country for the better, and I believed the best way to do that was by getting more Greens elected. In 2015 I was persuaded to stand for election myself – first as a councillor, then as an MP and then, at the insistence of friends and party colleagues, as co-leader of the Greens in 2021.
