Green party MP Caroline Lucas to stand for leadership
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas says she will stand for the party’s leadership in a job share with Jonathan Bartley.
Mr Bartley, the Green Party’s national Work and Pensions spokesperson, would work with Lucas under the slogan “The Power of Working Together”, the Guardian reports.
The duo hope to create a new “progressive alliance” with other parties that are willing to advocate electoral reform.
They are also hoping to professionalise the Green party by creating a team of full-time campaigners to help in constituencies.
Ms Lucas said: “Because of the responsibilities I still have as a constituency MP and a voice at Westminster, taking on the job of leader on my own was not something that would sit well with that – so it was fantastic to have the conversation with Jonathan.”
“There is a sense, which we felt very strongly with the job share idea itself, that more ideas, the more plural your politics, the more likely they will be effective, and reach more people”.
Lucas has been MP for Brighton Pavilion since 2010 and will be running to succeed the current leader, Natalie Bennett, whose term ends in August.
Mr Bartley, who was the party’s Parliamentary candidate for Streatham in the 2015 general election, said he joined the Green party after experiencing caring for his son, Samuel, who is in a wheelchair.
“Samuel’s life to me has been a political statement, and has profoundly changed my outlook on the world,” he said.
Last year, Lucas called on the government to protect funding for LGBT domestic violence charity Broken Rainbow UK.
She went on to present a bill to parliament that seeks to make the teaching of personal, social and health education (PSHE) compulsory in all schools.
