Caroline Lucas

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 September 2023 Green League?

18 people made it into September 2023’s Green League, the same as in August. 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?

This month, the only change in the rankings is that Green Party of England and Wales co-leader Carla Denyer has overtaken former Green Party MEP Jean Lambert to take the 17th spot. While their increases haven’t changed the order of the table, Green Party of England and Wales deputy leader Zack Polanski and Green MP Caroline Lucas are the only two Greens who added more than 1,000 followers in the last month. The two other Greens with the biggest increase in their following were Rupert Read and Carla Denyer.

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 over 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 remain 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.

Outside of the top 18, Green Party of England and Wales migration spokesperson Benali Hamdache added the most followers to his social media accounts this month.

The Green League – Full table, September 2023

  1. Caroline Lucas – 803,000 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Threads)
  2. Natalie Bennett – 235,000 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok)
  3. Magid Magid – 168,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Threads)
  4. Patrick Harvie – 123,000 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads)
  5. Jenny Jones – 86,000 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
  6. Molly Scott Cato – 84,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads)
  7. Sian Berry – 83,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon)
  8. Amelia Womack – 66,500 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 – 48,00 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads)
  13. Lorna Slater – 37,000 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads)
  14. Caroline Russell – 35,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads)
  15. Zack Polanski – 32,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Mastodon, Threads)
  16. Adam Ramsay – 30,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Instagram)
  17. Carla Denyer – 29,000 (+1) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
  18. Jean Lambert – 28,500 followers (-1) (Twitter, Facebook)

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 12 September 2023.

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Image credit: UK Parliament – Creative Commons