Adrian Ramsay, the former co-leader of the Green party of England and Wales, has said the party must repair its internal democracy to avoid being taken over by the hard left, arguing that some recent joiners would be more comfortable in other left-wing organisations.
Speaking to the BBC, the MP for Waveney Valley described the current moment as a "real crossroads point" for the Greens. He warned that one available path carried the risk of a "quite divisive approach to politics", which he said had been seen from small groups on the hard left who move between parties in an attempt to influence how those parties are run.
Ramsay said a "small number" of people had joined the Greens from the very hard left, including after the failure of other left-wing movements, and suggested they "might be more at home" in the Socialist Workers party, with George Galloway or with Jeremy Corbyn's Your Party. According to Ramsay, such members not only push hardline positions on certain issues but bring a different political culture, and are seeking to change the party's direction. He argued the leadership needs to reassert the Greens' core values and ways of working, which he characterised as consensus building, less tribal and focused on the environment.
He pointed to flaws in the party's internal democracy that allow small groups to wield outsized influence, citing a "Zionism is racism" motion passed at the party's conference. Ramsay said only 0.4% of members voted for it, which he did not believe reflected the membership as a whole, and called for a ballot or survey of the wider membership.
Ramsay, who has been critical of how the row over the motion has been handled, said the party should change or rescind it sooner than the two-year cycle permitted under party rules, and should amend those rules so the wider membership has more control over policy rather than the small number of members who attend the annual conference. He said the motion contradicted the Greens' 2024 manifesto, adding that the party supports equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis and self-determination for all people. Asked whether he viewed Zionism as racist, he said he did not.
He also said Zack Polanski, the party leader, should have been present for the debate and vote despite fighting a byelection in Holborn and St Pancras, and should have made his view clear. Ramsay said he was not calling for Polanski to stand down and had no intention of leaving the party himself, while welcoming its growth in membership.
Greens Organise, the grassroots group that backed Polanski's leadership, disputed Ramsay's framing. A spokesperson said he had put forward his case for the party's future a year ago and lost by a landslide 84%, and that more than 150,000 members had joined under Polanski's leadership, helping deliver unprecedented electoral success. Those members deserve representatives who focus on fighting for radical solutions to the crises the country faces, the spokesperson said.
Ramsay said the party also needed to refocus on its core missions around climate and nature, as well as the cost of living crisis, which he believed would unite members and preserve the party's broad appeal.
Sources: The Guardian Politics.