[3][4] An interview with overpopulation expert Paul R. Ehrlich in Playboy magazine inspired[3] a small group of professional and business people to form the 'Thirteen Club', so named because it first met on 13 September 1972 at the Napton Bridge pub in Napton-on-the-Hill near Daventry.

[5] This included surveyors and property agents Freda Sanders and Michael Benfield, and husband-and-wife solicitors Lesley and Tony Whittaker[3] (a former Kenilworth councillor for the Conservative Party), all with practices in Coventry.

[6][3] Its policy concerns published in 1973 included economics, employment, defence, energy and fuel supplies, land tenure, pollution and social security, all set within an ecological perspective.

In the October 1974 general election, where PEOPLE's average vote fell to just 0.7%; much of the difference was made by Liberal candidates entering the fray.

[9] Party co-founder Tony Whittaker noted in an interview with Derek Wall '… voters did not connect PEOPLE with ecology.

Nonetheless, PEOPLE invested much of its resources in engaging with the indifferent environmental movement, which Wall calls a "tactical mistake".

considered this a gamble, the plan, encouraged by Porritt, worked, as the party received 39,918 votes (an average of 1.5%) and membership jumped tenfold from around 500 to 5,000 or more.

[8] Following this electoral success, the party introduced Annual Spring Conferences to accompany Autumn Conferences, and a process of building up a large compendium of policies began, culminated in today's Policies for a Sustainable Society (which encompasses around 124 520 words).

[citation needed] Nonetheless, the Party prepared for the 1983 general election, inspired by the success of Die Grünen in Germany.

The first public meeting, chaired by David Fitzpatrick (then an Ecology Party speaker), was 13 June 1985 in Hackney Town Hall.

Paul Ekins (then co-chair of the Ecology Party) spoke on the subject of Green politics and the inner city.

According to Derek Wall,[citation needed] the party would have gained 12 seats if they had been running in other European countries who employed Proportional Representation.

Wall explains this "breakthrough" as a combination of the declining popularity of Margaret Thatcher, the reaction to the Poll Tax, Conservative opposition to the European Union, ineffective Labour Party and Liberal Democrat campaigns and a well-prepared Green Party campaign.

[17] As a result of this success, Sara Parkin and David Icke rose to prominence in the UK media, soon becoming two of the four Principal Speakers, a position created in lieu of a leader.

[citation needed] In the run up to the 1989 party conference, it attracted criticism for advocating policies aiming to reduce the total population,[18] proposals which were subsequently rejected.

Mainstream political parties were, however, alarmed by the Greens' electoral performance and adopted some 'Green policies' in an attempt to counter the threat.

The party lost all of its deposits by failing to win 12.5% of the votes cast, namely a total of £900 (equivalent to £11,800 in 2023).