Voting in the Green Party’s leadership contest kicks off today.
The party, which has four MPs and more than 800 council seats, holds elections for its leaders and deputy leaders every two years.
However, the last contest was in 2021 when current leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay were elected for a three-year term to avoid a leadership election overlapping with the 2024 general election.
Only paid-up members can vote in the internal elections, which start on 1 August and close on 30 August.
Results will be announced on 2 September.
Who is standing to be leader?
Ellie Chowns and Adrian Ramsay
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The two Green MPs are standing together as co-leaders and have said they can “inspire teams, grow trust and deliver results”.
Adrian Ramsay is current co-leader with Carla Denyer, but she said in May she would not stand as co-leader again because she wants to focus on being the MP for Bristol Central.
He was previously Green Party deputy leader, a Norwich City councillor, head of the Centre for Alternative Technology and CEO of MCS Charitable Foundation, which funds renewable energy and low-carbon technologies.
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Elected as the MP for Waveney Valley in 2024 with a 41.7% majority, Mr Ramsay has spoken out against government plans to build a 100-mile corridor of pylons to connect his Suffolk constituency to offshore wind power.
He said he was in favour of other options, including an offshore grid, leading to allegations of NIMBYism from Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.
The MP caused controversy following last April’s Supreme Court landmark judgment on how a woman should be defined in law when he avoided answering whether he believes trans women are women.
Dr Ellie Chowns is an international development specialist, having worked for a few charities and as a lecturer at the University of Birmingham, where she completed her PhD on Malawi’s rural water supply.
She was elected as a councillor in Herefordshire in 2017, then became the Green group’s leader before becoming an MEP in 2019 and winning her North Herefordshire parliamentary seat last year, after failing twice before.
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Dr Chowns was arrested in 2019 in Trafalgar Square while defending the rights of Extinction Rebellion protesters to continue demonstrating.
She was part of a group that successfully challenged in the High Court the legality of the police using a Section 14 order to arrest her – conditions imposed on public assemblies to prevent serious disruption.
During their leadership campaign, Mr Ramsay and Dr Chowns have been backed by former Greens leader Caroline Lucas, who has said the party needs to keep its “distinctive voice”, putting climate and nature front and centre, and fairness and hope for all.
Ex-Labour MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, who are setting up a new left-wing party, have signalled they are open to “co-operating” with the Greens.
However, Mr Ramsay and Dr Chowns rejected the call for a pact and urged the party to keep its “distinctive identity”.
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Zack Polanski
The current deputy leader of the party and London assembly member has said he will offer an “eco-populism” alternative to Labour and Reform.
Born David Paulden, he changed his name aged 18 to his grandfather’s original surname he initially thought was altered to flee Nazi Germany, but later learned was to avoid antisemitism in the UK.
Polanski started by joining the Lib Dems, and standing as a councillor for the party in north London in 2016. He then joined the Greens the following year, was elected a member of the London Assembly in 2021, and deputy leader of the party in 2022.
In 2013, Polanski had a hypnotherapy practice, and a Sun journalist went in as a client and asked him if he could make her think herself to having bigger boobs.
Speaking to LBC last year, he said he had apologised for his past actions, adding: “It does not represent my work, it does not represent me.”
Now, his “eco-populist” vision involves transforming the Green Party into a more visible, mass-membership movement.
He told a hustings in London in July that the Greens should combine “substance with clickbait” alongside “storytelling” as effective as Nigel Farage’s.
Mr Polanski wants to appeal to those on the progressive left who feel Labour has turned its back on them.
He has also said that the Greens should not be closing down the prospect of cooperating with the new Jeremy Corbyn-Zarah Sultana party.
