Credit Emma Innocenti

9 min read1 hr

Caroline Lucas would “love” for Zack Polanski to spend more time talking about the environment. It is not, historically, a criticism that one would have expected to be levelled at a Green Party leader, but the Corbynite-populist turn taken by the newcomer has frustrated some veterans of the party – while also bringing electoral success.

As a former leader of the party herself, Lucas is complimentary of Polanski, saying she considers him a friend, albeit one she doesn’t speak to often, given his busy schedule. “He has taken the Green Party into a whole new space,” she says, noting the party’s ballooning membership and recent wins, most notably in Gorton and Denton.

“Journalists used to say to me very frequently: ‘You’re just a one-issue party,’” she recalls. “Now Zack has broadened the agenda, and the criticism that sometimes gets levelled at Zack is: ‘What’s happened to the environment?’”

Asked whether she disagrees with the criticism, however, she admits: “I would love him to talk about it a little bit more.” She goes on to add: “But I understand entirely why he’s taken the decisions that he has, and even in recent weeks he certainly, from my hearing, is talking about it more.”

While Lucas is careful in her answers to acknowledge that it is Polanski who now runs the show, she is not afraid to intervene when she feels it’s needed – for example, calling for immediate action by the party when several of its candidates in the May local elections faced antisemitism allegations. Lucas “definitely still sees a role for herself” in the Greens, as long-time friend and adviser Cath Miller tells The House. “It’s an intrinsic part of her.”

Asked whether the intervention over antisemitism was a difficult one to make, Lucas says: “I felt that it needed to be said, and that the vast majority of people both inside and outside the party would agree with it. It just felt that I hadn’t seen it being said in quite those terms.”

One of her frustrations as leader, she says, was not being able to get involved in disciplinary issues – though she understands the reasoning behind that set-up, considering it was political interference that contributed to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s decision to call Labour institutionally antisemitic in 2020.

The Greens also attracted controversy earlier this year when the party looked set to debate a controversial motion titled “Zionism is racism” at its spring conference. While the motion did not end up being debated, it could return in the autumn. What does Lucas make of the row?

She pauses before answering. “I’m not sure it’s a very helpful debate, in the sense that the way in which that motion was worded caused a lot of concern among people across the party.”

There is a vast difference between criticising the Israeli government and using terms about which Jewish Greens and others have raised concerns, she stresses. “Zionism can be interpreted in so many different ways, and there was a concern that some people thought the motion was talking more about individual Jewish people rather than the Israeli government.”

It is up to the party to decide what to discuss, Lucas adds, but she hopes the debate is held in a less “toxic” way next time.

The party has also been criticised by some in recent years for its expulsion of ‘gender-critical’ members who oppose its policy on self-identification. Does Lucas think the zero-tolerance approach that has been taken is the right one?

“As far as I know, people haven’t been expelled simply for being gender-critical and, if they have, that should never happen,” she says. Suspension as a result of someone being accused of transphobic language or actions is one thing, Lucas says, whereas those who are gender-critical but “perfectly respectful – I don’t think we should be hounding those people out of the party”.

It seems inevitable that as the Greens grow, factional infighting will become more common. When asked what her advice would be, Lucas strikes a maternal tone: “There needs to be an awful lot more willingness to hear views that aren’t necessarily your own. We need to find ways of handling difference in our party, and all parties, in a better way.”

She continues: “If there’s transphobia or homophobia or any kind of race hate, that is completely unacceptable. But most of this stuff is much more about differences of views that we ought to be able to find ways to handle better.”

In 1986, when Caroline Lucas first joined the Green Party, “The height of our ambitions was to save our deposit or win a seat on a local council,” she recalls in her 2015 book, Honourable Friends? Parliament and the Fight for Change. Expectations within the party look very different today.

The Green Party had already been doing well in the polls, but the election of London Assembly member and former deputy leader Polanski as leader in September turbocharged its popularity. In the contest last year, Lucas threw her support behind the more environment-focused and traditional pair of co-leader candidates, MPs Ellie Chowns and Adrian Ramsay.

Now, she says her concerns about a Polanski leadership were misplaced: “I mistakenly thought it was going to be a problem, not having the leadership within the parliamentary party.” The reality, she believes, is it has been an advantage, allowing Polanski to be more active in terms of media appearances.

Lucas, now 65, has a long history with the Green Party. After joining it back in 1986, she led the party for a decade in total between 2003 and 2018. She sat as a Green MP in Westminster for 14 years and served as an MEP for more than 10 years before that.

Since leaving the Commons in 2024, Lucas has more time on her hands. The House has travelled to meet her on the sunny campus of the University of Sussex where, in 2025, Lucas was appointed professor of practice in environmental sustainability. 

“There was a concern that some people thought the motion was talking more about individual Jewish people rather than the Israeli government”

Advertisement

It is hours after the news has broken that Andy Burnham will return to Westminster. At one point she laughs about how they are talking of him as if he is already prime minister. “Let’s assume he will be pretty soon,” she says.

The possibility of the Greens partly forming the next government is an idea that has gained salience in recent months, particularly so in light of Burnham’s likely ascent to No 10.

Asked which role she would like to play in a hypothetical Labour-Green coalition, Lucas is keen to talk about the party rather than herself. She makes clear that she thinks the Greens should not resign themselves – in light of their recent success – to playing a minor role in such a government.

“We don’t even know which is going to be the most successful progressive party on the left at the next general election. So, let’s not assume that we’re the ones who are going to be the junior partners here. Let’s be ambitious.”

She also warns that history has shown the potential pitfalls awaiting those who enter coalitions. “What that would actually look like… is something that we’ve got to think incredibly carefully about,” she says, adding that the Liberal Democrats “gave an object lesson of how not to do coalition government, and we would certainly want to learn from that”.

Are there Green policies that could be watered down in preparation for a coalition, as reports suggest? “Those kinds of questions are so far ahead of where the debate is at right now, because it assumes the coalition government is the arrangement that most people would support,” she replies. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

Last month, reports emerged that a progressive alliance council was being formed by centre-left think tank Compass, of which Burnham ally Neal Lawson is director.

Lucas, who co-chairs the organisation, claims she knows little about it. “I imagine first and foremost, it’s about building trust and relationships now, well in advance of any election.”

Surprisingly, Lucas appears wary of going any further by embracing the progressive alliance movement too readily. “It’s true to say the Green Party’s fingers have been really burnt by it,” she says.

The idea has been “interpreted by Labour again and again as Greens being forced to stand down or being bullied into standing down”, Lucas argues. “There was no reciprocity to it at all, and that is not what a progressive alliance is. So, even that term now within the party is treated with understandable suspicion.”

But their recent wins mean the Greens now find themselves in a stronger position, Lucas says:

“There’s absolutely no way that the Greens are going to stand for being treated in that way.”

She insists that the foot is now “on the pedal” for the mayoral contest in Greater Manchester, triggered by Burnham’s new Westminster posting. 

“The Greens definitely will be throwing everything at that, and I would absolutely support them in so doing, and will be up there to do what I can to help,” Lucas says.

She is, however, excited by Burnham’s support for electoral reform, saying the pressure is now on to make sure he delivers on that as soon as possible.

It is up to the progressive movement as a whole, Lucas declares, to ensure that Burnham does not campaign left but govern right: “It would be a rash person to sit here and say: ‘He won’t do that,’ given our experience of recent Labour leaders.”

While no longer an MP, Lucas’ dedication to the Greens has not wavered. She points to the new Green think tank Verdant, of which she sits on the board and through which she is keen to help shape policy, as well as her role as co-president of the European Movement, an advocacy group that promotes European integration, which she hopes will allow her “a little bit of influence over the party’s new direction”.

“There’s plenty going on,” she says. “I’m not done yet.”