Carla Denyer will not stand again as the co-leader of the Greens after the party launched a leadership election.
The Bristol Central MP, who currently heads the party alongside Adrian Ramsay, said she wanted to “pour her energy” into her work as one of the city’s representatives in parliament.
Ms Denyer said it had been an “enormous privilege” to lead the Greens into their best-ever general election, where they went from one MP to four, and to increase its number of councillors from 450 to more than 850 at last week’s local elections.
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She said she would continue to lead the party for the next four months until the results of the internal election are announced in the autumn.
On Monday, Zack Polanski, the Green Party deputy leader and a member of the London Assembly, announced he would stand for the leadership.
In an interview with The Guardian, he criticised the current leadership for not being “bold” or visible enough as he outlined plans to turn the party into a “mass movement” based around “eco-populism”.
On Thursday, Mr Polanski suggested to Byline Times that the UK should pull out of NATO, arguing that the “age of NATO is now fully over” due to Donald Trump’s scepticism about the bloc.
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In a statement, Ms Denyer said the UK was at a “critical juncture in British politics” and that people were “feeling deeply let down and are looking for real alternatives”.
She added: “And with the hard-right on the rise in the UK and across the world, it’s never been more important for Greens to offer a genuinely hopeful vision for our future – and crucially to put forward real solutions to make people’s lives better.
“That’s what I’ll be focussing on over the next four years as an MP: fighting for rent controls so that everyone can afford a decent roof over their heads, to futureproof British industry to secure good green jobs for this generation and the next, and to replace the racism and xenophobia at the heart of our migration system with common sense and compassion.
“In this new five-party political system it’s all to play for. The future of the Green Party is bright, and I’m so excited to play my part in this next chapter as a committed and passionate Green MP.”
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Under the Green Party rulebook, internal leadership elections are held every two years.
However, in 2021, Mr Ramsay and Ms Denyer were elected for a three-year term instead because of the disruption caused by the COVID pandemic.
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The Green Party membership then voted not to hold an election in 2024 to avoid an overlap with the general election.
Nominations for the leadership open on 2 June and close on 30 June.
Ballots open on 1 August and close on 30 August, with the results announced on 2 September.
