It’s been quite the week – well, six, really, since Rishi Sunak called a snap election – for co-leader of the Green Party, Carla Denyer. On Monday, she took a train from her local station of Bristol Temple Meads to Westminster, ready to enter Parliament as an MP for the first time. Denyer, who is 38, won in Bristol Central over Labour candidate, Thangam Debbonaire, by a clear majority of more than 10,000 votes. It was previously a Labour ‘safe’ seat.
She wasn’t the only Green candidate to their place in the Commons either, with three other MPs successfully fighting off local competition – two of whom in rural, formerly Tory areas (Adrian Ramsay, the party’s co-leader, is now MP for Waveney Valley and North Herefordshire opted for Ellie Chowns). It was a record-breaking election for the party, which up until now has been somewhat of an underdog, expected to triumph only in bohemian student-filled spots, with a slim chance of ever actually gaining complete power.
Might that all be set to change?
The buzz the party generated ahead of polling day was at a higher level than ever before, or so it seemed from what I saw on my own social media feeds. Underneath many political posts, be they from the BBC, Simple Politics or Politics JOE, thousands of people proudly shouted about their plans to vote Green. Many for the first time, citing Labour’s stance on issues like same-sex spaces, its treatment Diane Abbott and Faiza Shaheen, and initial failure to call for a clear and immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
“I've had so many people come up to me in the street saying, ‘Thank you for saying what no other politician is and for representing my views on a national platform, I didn't think there was any party that did that’,” Denyer says when we meet in a juice bar around the corner from Westminster, referencing her debut appearance in the TV debates. She arrives a couple of minutes late, a suitcase in tow, and is apologetic after finding herself waylaid by a gaggle of schoolchildren on a tour of Westminster, all keen for selfies.
So, now that the election dust has settled, what’s next for the Greens – a party which feels as though it’s only just getting going?
A new opposition
Winning four seats may not sound a lot in the grand scheme of things and only amounts to 1% of the total seat share in Parliament, but when it comes to the number of votes received, Greens came in far higher with 7% – its most yet. The party also came in second in 40 constituencies which Denyer says the party is thrilled by. She is also proud that they have “an oversupply of women” in their ranks (3 Green MPs are women); her joint leadership with Ramsay is nothing new for the Greens (in the seven UK elections that the Greens have run, five have featured two leaders – one of each sex for better balance, is the theory).
Stepping into an MP role has been a long time coming for Denyer: she first made a name for herself as an environmental activist while at sixth form in Durham, but the road to success has been neither smooth nor easy (is it ever?). The campaign was far from perfect: with a controversial policy describing childbirth as a ‘non-medical event’ and promising to reduce medical interventions sparking major backlash (it was swiftly dropped), along with outcry at an image of a man coughing appearing next to a manifesto pledge on ending HIV by 2030 (some said it wrongly implied the virus is airborne).
Seeing Greens generate so many more headlines – both good and bad – along with having her own public profile rise has been an adjustment, Denyer admits. But alongside criticisms (fair or otherwise), she has been buoyed by the public response to the party's growth. She recounts another incident where she was recently stopped for a selfie by a woman working in a hotel she stayed in, and how moments like that serve as a reminder of what really matters. “I can deal with the odd critical article in a right-wing paper if I'm getting dozens of hugs from strangers on minimum wage, who feel like the Green Party is standing up for them.”
Her political career almost never happened though, Denyer reflects, “When I was first asked to stand for election as a councillor, and then later as an MP, I said no. I didn't see myself as a politician or think I had the skills needed, but fortunately the people that asked me didn't take ‘no’ as my final answer.” Now, she says, she tries to ‘pass on that favour’ and hopes to see those in government continue to diversify (the new Parliament is the “most diverse yet” in terms of race and gender, with women now accounting for 40.5% of the Commons – up 5%). “When I meet someone, whether it's a woman or a person of colour, or a disabled person, from whatever group is underrepresented in politics, if I think they’d be good I make sure I let them know. And then I keep asking them.”
Amongst all the recent change, one thing that’s stayed consistent for the Greens is an appetite to challenge the status quo, or in this case the newly appointed Labour government. In particular, it sounds like Denyer has a lot of questions for Rachel Reeves, the UK’s first female Chancellor. “I'm hopeful that this Labour government will be better than the last [government], they could hardly be much worse,” Denyer says, when asked her thoughts on the seismic shift from blue to red. “But throughout the election campaign, Labour consistently failed to show the level of ambition that we think is needed to actually tackle the issues in this country, [be it] the climate crisis, the housing crisis, crumbling schools or hospitals…”
She has particular concerns around the cash flow, highlighting how the Greens have long pushed for those with more than £10m in wealth to be taxed at a higher rate – and says this is something they’ll continue to advocate for. “Throughout the campaign, we were the only party being honest about the scale of investment that's needed and how we could raise that money. I was shocked when speaking on a number of panels to hear Labour MPs or candidates come back to me with ‘We can't afford that’ when I’d just proposed a wealth tax on multimillionaires and billionaires. [I thought] what do you mean ‘you can't afford it’? I'm literally telling you how you can raise tens of billions of pounds?”
The future is green
Denyer won’t be stopping there either and unsurprisingly, climate change is still top of her list of issues to press Keir Starmer and co on. After all, it is the reason she got into politics following a career in the wind energy space, where she felt the UK “wasn’t moving fast enough” when it came to decarbonising (the removal or reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere). Not due to a lack of technology, in her opinion, but a lack of political impetus. “I will definitely be pushing the Labour government to go further and faster on decarbonising and making sure that they do it in a way that is fair,” she says, as well as continuing to push for the voting system to be reformed.
But could this passion for climate justice be a double-edged sword for the party, causing some to overlook the Greens as a group that simply care about environmental issues – though vitally important – and little else? It’s a myth they’re keen to address going forward.
“It's not true,” Denyer says plainly. “The Green Party has always had a full slate of policies and we've always been about making the country fairer, as well as greener.” In the past, she’s also felt pigeon-holed. “[Less so now but] sometimes in media interviews, I get asked questions about the environment and then when I try to talk about other policies, they cut me off or it gets edited out. Sometimes it's a bit of a challenge as a Green to get heard talking about our other policies, rather than it being because we don't have them.”
Could part of the problem be the party’s name itself? It is, after all… very Green. “Yeah, it is. I do understand that,” Denyer concedes, but she caveats that the ‘branding is helpful’ in other ways. “There are Green parties in almost every country in the world now. So, there's a sense of you know what you're getting. But in common with our sister parties, we are all about economic, social and racial equality, as well as sorting out climate and the environment.” In Australia, the Greens currently hold 15% of seats in the Australian Senate and make up 2% of the House of Representatives there; it’s a trajectory the UK party are keen to follow.
For many, it’ll be a surprise to learn that the Greens are part of a global force, given the party still feels in its infancy (it formed in the UK in 1990). Its key support is on the younger side too, with almost one-fifth of 18 to 24-year-olds in the UK voting Green (more than for the UK’s ‘third party’, the Liberal Democrats). But why is it that the Greens have such a resonance with youth voters? And what will the party do to widen the net next time around?
“One election at a time,” Denyer laughs, before reverting back to a more serious tone and sharing there is a long-term plan in place. She also explains that during this most recent election campaign, articles were written suggesting that the Greens could never win anywhere besides Bristol and maybe Brighton (owing to the bohemian nature of both cities and large student populations) – which has since proven incorrect.
Looking ahead, future goals for the Greens are to keep chipping away at a local level, especially in those areas where they came a close second. The problem historically, Denyer believes, has not been getting people to align with Green Party policies, but in persuading people that their vote wouldn’t be wasted should they opt to stand by them at the ballot box.
“There is a consistent majority of people in the UK who support publicly owned services like water, railways and so on. There’s a significant majority of the public that support wealth taxes and yet often the Greens are the first or only party to be offering those policies,” Denyer reflects. “We know that our policies are popular. The barrier to voters voting Green in the past has been that people thought we couldn't get it, rather than [us trying to] persuade them that they agree with us. Now, we’re getting Green MPs and councillors and assembly members elected, and hopefully Welsh Senedd members next time.”
She takes a sip of her black Americano and thinks on: “People are seeing that if you want Green policies, you can vote for Green, and you will get a Green elected. This general election result may have broken the seal somewhat.”
Follow Jennifer on Instagram and X
Jennifer Savin is Cosmopolitan UK's multiple award-winning Features Editor, who was crowned Digital Journalist of the Year for her work tackling the issues most important to young women. She regularly covers breaking news, cultural trends, health, the royals and more, using her esteemed connections to access the best experts along the way. She's grilled everyone from high-profile politicians to A-list celebrities, and has sensitively interviewed hundreds of people about their real life stories. In addition to this, Jennifer is widely known for her own undercover investigations and campaign work, which includes successfully petitioning the government for change around topics like abortion rights and image-based sexual abuse. Jennifer is also a published author, documentary consultant (helping to create BBC’s Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next?) and a patron for Y.E.S. (a youth services charity). Alongside Cosmopolitan, Jennifer has written for The Times, Women’s Health, ELLE and numerous other publications, appeared on podcasts, and spoken on (and hosted) panels for the Women of the World Festival, the University of Manchester and more. In her spare time, Jennifer is a big fan of lipstick, leopard print and over-ordering at dinner. Follow Jennifer on Instagram, X or LinkedIn.
