A photo of Green Party campaigners in Bristol

Every month Bright Green takes a look at Greens on social media, breaking down who has the most followers in the UK’s Green Parties with a rolling league table. We set out who’s up and who’s down, while also providing analysis of why some people are making more of a splash than others. You can find out our criteria for the Green League here.

Who made it into the November 2022 Green League?

16 people made it into November 2022’s Green League – the same number as in each previous month we have been tracking Greens’ social media following.

Green MP Caroline Lucas still tops the table, with over 500,000 more followers across all her channels than second placed Natalie Bennett. Co-leader of the Scottish Greens Patrick Harvie remains the highest placed Scot, and along with former MEP Magid Magid he makes up the four Greens with over 100,000 followers.

For the first time since Bright Green began publishing the Green League, we have our first new entrant. Matt Zarb-Cousin enters the league table at number 11 after he joined the Green Party of England and Wales in November. Zarb-Cousin is a gambling reform campaigner and served as Jeremy Corbyn’s media spokesperson in 2016-17.

Following his sad passing at the end of October, we have removed Keith Taylor from our league table.

Who’s up and who’s down?

Matt Zarb-Cousin joining our league table has rejigged our rankings, with Rupert Read, Caroline Russell, Lorna Slater, Adam Ramsay and Jean Lambert all dropping one place. The only other shift in the table comes as Jenny Jones overtook Amelia Womack to become the seventh most followed Green in the UK.

Meanwhile, other Greens have seen big increases in their following this month. Within our league table, the Greens who saw the most significant growth this month were Caroline Lucas, Rupert Read, Patrick Harvie and Jenny Jones. Lucas gained over 10,000 followers and both Read and Harvie added over 1,000.

Looking at individual platforms, Ross Greer remains the most followed Green on TikTok by a substantial margin, with Patrick Harvie ahead on Mastodon – a platform we’ve added to our league table for the first time this month. Caroline Lucas has the most followers across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Below the 16 who made into the table, there’s also lots of movement. Deputy leader of the Green Party of England and Wales Zack Polanski has again seen the biggest growth, adding over 1,400 followers across his social media channels – over 1,000 of which came from Mastodon. Carla Denyer – co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales also saw large growth, primarily on Twitter. She added almost 900 followers to her tally this month. Her colleague Adrian Ramsay added almost 300 followers this month, with Twitter being the driver.

The Green League – Full table, October 2022

  1. Caroline Lucas – 750,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
  2. Natalie Bennett – 232,000 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok)
  3. Magid Magid – 170,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
  4. Patrick Harvie – 119,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon)
  5. Sian Berry – 82,000 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon)
  6. Molly Scott Cato – 81,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon)
  7. Jenny Jones – 67,000 followers (+1) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
  8. Amelia Womack – 66,500 followers (-1) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok)
  9. Jonathan Bartley – 64,000 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
  10. Ross Greer – 63,000 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok)
  11. Matt Zarb-Cousin – 58,000 followers (NEW) (Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Mastodon)
  12. Rupert Read – 41,500 followers (-1) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
  13. Caroline Russell – 35,500 followers (-1) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
  14. Lorna Slater – 34,100 followers (-1) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon)
  15. Adam Ramsay – 30,500 followers (-1) (Twitter, Instagram)
  16. Jean Lambert – 30,000 followers (-1) (Twitter, Facebook)

Think someone is missing from this list? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Mastodon.

Note that all follower counts listed above are rounded to the nearest 500. All data should be accurate as of 16 November 2022. With Mastodon usage growing substantially, expect follower counts on that platform to be outdated.

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Image credit: Matthew Philip Long – Creative Commons