Carla Denyer and Zack Polanski standing in front of a crowd of Green Party supporters

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 January 2024 Green League?

19 people made it into January 2024’s Green League, the same number as in December. 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?

The big climber in this month’s league table is Green Party of England and Wales deputy leader Zack Polanski. He’s up two positions on the previous month, now sitting in the 13th position. He’s overtaken Lorna Slater and Caroline Russell in the league table.

While their increases haven’t changed the order of the table, Green MP Caroline Lucas and Jenny Jones both added more than 2,000 followers in the last month. Other Greens with big increases in their following were Green Party of England and Wales co-leader Carla Denyer, academic Rupert Read and Green Party of England and Wales campaigns coordinator Tom Scott.

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 5,500 followers, almost double that of second placed Molly Scott Cato. Caroline Lucas has the most followers across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Threads. On the latter, she has over 28,000 followers – more than six times more than second placed Magid Magid.

Below the 19 who made into the table, there’s still a fair bit of movement. The Green most likely to enter our league in future months is Maggie Chapman MSP, who has more than 22,000 followers across all her social media channels.

Green Party of England and Wales migration spokesperson Benali Hamdache saw the second biggest growth outside of the top 19.

The Green League – Full table, November 2023

  1. Caroline Lucas – 823,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Threads)
  2. Natalie Bennett – 235,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok)
  3. Magid Magid – 166,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Threads)
  4. Patrick Harvie – 122,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads)
  5. Jenny Jones – 91,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
  6. Molly Scott Cato – 84,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads)
  7. Sian Berry – 84,000 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 – 61,000 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
  11. Matt Zarb-Cousin – 59,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Mastodon, Threads)
  12. Rupert Read – 49,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads)
  13. Zack Polanski – 39,000 followers (+2) (Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Mastodon, Threads)
  14. Lorna Slater – 36,500 followers (-1) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads)
  15. Caroline Russell – 36,000 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Threads)
  16. Carla Denyer – 31,500 (-) (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram)
  17. Adam Ramsay – 30,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Instagram)
  18. Jean Lambert – 28,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Facebook)
  19. Tom Scott – 21,500 followers (-) (Twitter, Mastodon)

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 28 January 2024.

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Image credit: Rob Browne – Creative Commons