The history of The Green Party
The Green Party was the first national Green Party in Europe. We have come a long way since being set up in 1973.
Click on a date below to find out more.
1973
Four friends organise the first meeting of PEOPLE in Coventry. By the following year it has published a manifesto and is fielding candidates in the general election
1975
Jonathon Porritt emerges as prominent figure
PEOPLE is renamed the Ecology party to reflect its environmental agenda. Jonathon Porritt becomes a prominent figure twice chairing the party in the following decade. He generates headlines contesting the safe Conservative seat of Marylebone in general elections, challenging Tory candidate Kenneth Baker to a public debate.
1976
An important milestone. The party gets its first elected representative when John Luck wins a seat on a district council in East Sussex
1979
Fifty-three Green candidates stand in the general election, enough to qualify for a party-political broadcast. The campaign puts huge pressure on the party but is rewarded by increased media attention. Membership numbers swell from hundreds to thousands.
1980
The first summer gathering takes place at Worthy farm, home of Glastonbury. The event, which combined music with political debate, becomes an annual fixture and subsequently opens up to the wider Green movement.
1985
Name change to The Green Party
Another name change, this time to the Green Party. Close ties have formed with other emerging Green parties and Petra Kelly attends the second congress of European Greens in Dover.
1989
Over 2 million votes in European Parliamentary elections
The party secures over 2 million votes – 15 per cent – and comes third in the European Parliament elections making national headlines. But first past the post means no UK Green MEPs are elected. The same year the Scottish and Northern Irish Green parties decide to go their own way.
1992
Winning local council seats in areas with a high number of activists becomes a national priority. Soon Caroline Lucas secures a seat on Oxford county council.
1999
Election of Caroline Lucas and Jean Lambert
Caroline Lucas and Jean Lambert are elected MEPs in the first European parliament elections using PR.
2000
The capital gets its first directly elected Mayor and Greens win three seats in the London Assembly. Jenny Jones begins a 16 year stint as an influential Green champion in City Hall, acting as deputy Mayor for Ken Livingstone in 2003 and 2004.
2005
The party polls over one million votes in the general election, winning 20 per cent of the vote in Brighton Pavilion and 10 per cent in Lewisham Deptford
2009
The European Greens enjoy significant gains in parliamentary elections after adopting the Green New Deal as part of its manifesto, a policy promoted by GPEW.
2010
Caroline Lucas is elected first Green MP
Caroline Lucas is elected MP for Brighton Pavilion – a highly significant breakthrough. She is required to resign her seat as MEP and Keith Taylor who played a key role mobilising Green support in Brighton takes her place. The strength of Green support in the city is demonstrated again when the party gains control of Brighton and Hove council a year later.
2013
Jenny Jones is made a life peer. She was not the first however. Fourteen years earlier Lib Dem peer Lord Beaumont made history when he crossed the floor of the House of Lords and defected to the Greens.
2014
Green surge under Natalie Bennett’s leadership
There is a Green surge under Natalie Bennett’s leadership as a platform of social and environmental justice resonates with voters. Membership numbers double to 30000. Economist Molly Scott Cato becomes the third Green MEP after another strong performance in European parliament elections
2015
The party gets its highest voter share yet in the general election. Membership numbers climb rapidly again towards 60,000.
2016
A crushing blow – Brexit. The party had campaigned hard to remain arguing the EU had contributed to a safer, more peaceful Europe.
2017
The Green Party host the Global Greens and European Green Congress in Liverpool. 2000 delegates from 100 countries attend. Among them are Finland’s Pekka Haavisto, who became the first Green Minister in Europe in 1995, and is now the Finnish Foreign Minister, and Patrick Harvie currently Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants’ Rights in Scotland – just a few of the growing number of Greens in power.
2019
There is another surge in support as concern about climate change sweeps around the world. The party doubles its seats in the local elections from 178 to 372 and wins seven seats in the European elections. Natalie Bennett becomes the second Green peer.
2021
Election of Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer
Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay are elected co-leaders. Both are experienced councillors and parliamentary candidates in what are by now Green strongholds – Bristol and Norwich. Carla proposed the first Climate Emergency Declaration in Europe in Bristol in 2018
2023
Greens prepare for their biggest local election campaign yet in May, select a candidate for the London Mayoral election in 2024, and mobilise support in key constituencies for a general election, the most important in decades.