History of the Green Party of England and Wales

After the Green 2000 Constitution was adopted, a new Executive came into force to oversee the day-to-day business of the party.

Many Green 2000 members were elected to the new Executive in 1991 but, by 1992, only two remained, with the others resigning or being recalled and forced to quit.

These internal constitutional wranglings, and negative public statements released by supporters of both Green 2000 and decentralists who ran the recall campaigns, seriously hampered preparations for the 1992 General Election, in which 253 Green candidates received 1.3% of the vote.

[citation needed] The early and mid-1990s were difficult for the Greens, because of Britain's first-past-the-post electoral system, the recession of 1992–93 and the squeeze caused by the rising popularity of New Labour.

New democratic institutions were created that offered electoral possibilities for the Greens, such as the London Assembly, the National Assembly for Wales and – for the independent Scottish Green Party – the Scottish Parliament, all of which use some form of proportional representation, allowing smaller parties the chance of gaining representation.

Labour also changed European Parliamentary elections to a form of proportional representation.

[8] Caroline Lucas became the first Green candidate to gain a seat in Westminster, after being elected MP for Brighton Pavilion by a margin of 1,252 votes.

At the 2015 general election Lucas was reelected in Brighton Pavilion with an increased majority but the party did not win any other seats.

[13] In March 2023 the party abandoned its long-held opposition to NATO, though it said it supports reform of the organisation in aspects such as guaranteeing a ‘no-first-use’ policy on nuclear weapons, that NATO commits to upholding human rights and that the organisation acts in defence of only member states.

[17] The Greens were said to have been aiming at winning at least 100 new seats, with their appeal spreading to both left- and right-wing voters owing to dissatisfaction with the two main parties.

This marked the first time the party had elected more than a single MP and that it gained a constituency other than Brighton Pavilion, also winning Bristol Central, Waveney Valley and North Herefordshire.