Caroline Lucas – A Profile of the UKs Only Green MP

Overview

The only Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas claims to have been politically awoken by the Falklands War in 1982, the issue of nuclear weapons, and Jonathon Porritt’s book ‘Seeing Green‘.

Caroline Lucas joined the Green Party in 1986. From 1987-89, Lucas served as the Party’s National Press Officer and then Co-Chair (1989-90). In 1993, Lucas won the Green Party‘s second-ever council seat.

Elected under a proportional representation system, Lucas then became one of the Party’s first Members of the European Parliament in 1999. Lucas served as an MEP for 11 years until the 2010 General Election when she then became Parliament’s first Green Party MP.

Lucas has served as the Green Party‘s Leader (2008-2012), Co-leader (2016-2018) and Principal Speaker (2003-2006, 2007-2008).

Caroline Lucas MP, is the Green Party’s only MP.

In June 2023, Lucas announced that she will stand down at the next general election. She said it had been the “privilege of my life to serve this extraordinary constituency and community”.

In a letter sent to her Brighton Pavilion constituents, Lucas said the “threats to our precious planet” had become “ever more urgent”, but that her role in parliament as the Green Party’s only MP meant she was “ironically” unable to devote more attention to “accelerating crises” facing climate and nature.

“I have therefore decided not to stand again as your MP at the next election”, she said.

Green party MP Caroline Lucas to stand down at next election

Political Career

While studying for her PhD in 1986, Lucas happened upon Jonathon Porritt’s environmental manifesto, ‘Seeing Green‘. Lucas said later of her experience with the book: ‘it was one of those books that completely change your life within the space of time it takes to read 250 pages’.

After winning a seat on Oxfordshire County Council for the Greens in 1993, Lucas stood as a Green candidate for the South East region of England at the 1999 European elections. As an MEP for South East England, Lucas was a member of the European Parliament’s Committee for Trade, Industry, Energy and Research; the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy; the Committee on International Trade; and the Temporary Committee on Climate Change.

Lucas successfully stood for the constituency of Brighton Pavilion at the 2010 General Election, becoming the Green Party‘s first ever MP.

Lucas has won many awards for her work as an MP, including: being named the ‘Most Influential MP’ in 2012 by the Political Studies Association; ‘MP of the Year’; and ‘Newcomer of the Year’ in the Spectator’s 2010 Parliamentarian awards.

In June 2023, Caroline Lucas announced that she would be standing down as an MP at the next election.

Political Views

Lucas is outspoken about the climate crisis, a climate emergency, and its implications for humanity. She has co-written a book on the topic. The book was entitled, ‘Green Alternatives to Globalisation: A Manifesto’.

Alongside pushing Climate legislation in parliament, Lucas frequently campaigns beyond Westminster. In 2013, Lucas was arrested at an anti-fracking demonstration outside energy company Cuadrilla’s exploratory oil drilling site in West Sussex.

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Lucas said at the time that, ‘exploiting new sources of fossil fuel such as shale gas will fatally undermine the government‘s stated ambition to protect Britain from the worst impacts of the climate crisis, to meet our international obligations, and to reduce emissions’. She was later found not guilty of obstructing the public highway and public order offences.

Lucas was an influential member of the ‘People’s Vote‘ organisation which campaigned for a second referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. Lucas told attendees at the organisation’s launch: ‘[Brexit is] not inevitable … We’ll do everything we can in Parliament for a people’s vote. This issue is far too important to leave to the politicians’.

Lucas supports the introduction of a Universal Basic Income (UBI), even tabling a motion in the Commons calling for the Government to examine its feasibility.

She has also campaigned for Parliamentary reform and a change from the current first past the post electoral voting system.

As a politician, Lucas is also a prominent campaigner for animal rights. She received the Michael Kay Award from the RSPCA in 2006 for her contribution to European animal welfare – Lucas is now Vice President of the organisation.

BBC Wildlife listed Lucas in their ‘Top 50 Conservationists’.

Background

Caroline Patricia Lucas was born on 9th December 1960 to a small businessperson father and stay-at-home mother. Lucas is married to former cricketer Richard Savage, the couple have two sons – one of whom is an academic at the University of California.

Caroline studied an English degree at Exeter University before a year spent studying Buddhist philosophy and the History of Art in America.

Having returned to complete a PhD, Lucas spent 10 years working for Oxfam in various roles whilst campaigning in her spare time as a Green Party activist.

Caroline Lucas – Things you might know

Her husband was a professional cricketer
Richard Savage, Lucas’ husband, is a former professional cricketer. Savage played for one year with Warwickshire County Cricket Club.

She backed Jeremy Corbyn to be Labour Leader
The green politician endorsed Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign to be Labour Leader in 2015. She wrote in the Independent ‘I’ve never felt so optimistic about a potential Leader of the Labour Party. For the first time in my memory, the party of Keir Hardie and Clement Attlee looks likely to be led again by someone who dares to stand up for the radical changes demanded by the challenges we face’.

She wrote a PhD on Elizabethan Romance
Describing her PhD later in life, Lucas told the Guardian that, ‘My interest was in renaissance literature, looking at how men were writing for women in the 1590s, a time when many women were being taught to read but not to write’. Lucas PhD thesis is entitled ‘Writing for Women: The Example of Woman As Reader in Elizabethan Romance. by Caroline Lucas, Milton Keynes’. It can be read here .