Carla Denyer

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. To make the cut in the Green League, someone must:

  • Be a member of at least one of the UK’s Green Parties (the Scottish Greens, Green Party in Northern Ireland, or Green Party of England and Wales)
  • Have at least 25,000 followers across all their social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, Mastodon and Threads), or have at least 20,000 followers on a single social media channel.
  • Where an individual has more than one account on the same platform, we have only included the followers on the account they primarily use for their work within the UK’s Green Parties.

Who made it into the August 2023 Green League?

After a brief hiatus, the Green League is back. A lot has changed since we last published our run down of the most followed Greens in the UK in August. The Green Party of England and Wales has had historic election success, Caroline Lucas announced she is standing down as an MP at the next election, and an entirely new social media platform has emerged.

18 people made it into August 2023’s Green League. The only new addition since we last published the table is Green Party of England and Wales co-leader Carla Denyer.

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.

Who’s up and who’s down?

Since our last league table in March, the two biggest climbers have been Green peer Jenny Jones and Green Party of England and Wales deputy leader Zack Polanski. They’re both up two places, with Jones having leapfrogged Molly Scott Cato and Sian Berry to take the fifth spot. Polanski, meanwhile has taken over former MEP Jean Lambert and journalist Adam Ramsay to place 15th. Scottish Green Party co-leader Lorna Slater has also started to climb the rankings, taking 13th place from Caroline Russell.

Looking at individual platforms, Scottish Greens MSP Ross Greer remains the most followed Green on TikTok by a substantial margin. He has almost 2,000 more followers than second placed Natalie Bennett. Patrick Harvie remains ahead on Mastodon, with over 5,000 followers, almost double that of second placed Molly Scott Cato. Caroline Lucas has the most followers across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the newly created Threads. On the latter, she has almost 20,000 followers – more than six times more than second placed Magid Magid.

Below the 18 who made into the table, there’s still a fair bit of movement. The two Greens most likely to enter our league in future months are Maggie Chapman MSP and Green Party of England and Wales campaigns coordinator Tom Scott – both of whom have over 20,000 followers across all their channels.

The Green League – Full table, August 2023

  1. Caroline Lucas – 801,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Threads)
  2. Natalie Bennett – 235,000 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok)
  3. Magid Magid – 169,000 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Threads)
  4. Patrick Harvie – 123,000 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads)
  5. Jenny Jones – 86,000 followers (+2) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
  6. Molly Scott Cato – 84,500 followers (-1) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads)
  7. Sian Berry – 83,500 followers (-1) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon)
  8. Amelia Womack – 67,000 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads)
  9. Ross Greer – 65,000 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok)
  10. Jonathan Bartley – 62,000 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
  11. Matt Zarb-Cousin – 59,000 followers (-) (Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Mastodon, Threads)
  12. Rupert Read – 47,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads)
  13. Lorna Slater – 36,500 followers (+1) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads)
  14. Caroline Russell – 36,500 followers (-1) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads)
  15. Zack Polanski – 31,000 followers (+2) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Mastodon, Threads)
  16. Adam Ramsay – 30,500 followers (-1) (Twitter, Instagram)
  17. Jean Lambert – 29,000 followers (-1) (Twitter, Facebook)
  18. Carla Denyer – 28,500 (NEW) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)

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

Note that all follower counts listed above are rounded to the nearest 500. All data should be accurate as of 17 August 2023.

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Image credit: Bristol Green Party – Creative Commons