A poster reading "Vote Green Party" on the back of a chair

The Green Party Spring Conference was an utter disaster – but not entirely for the scurrilous reasons being put about on social media. Actually, we passed a few decent motions, including on climate, but no one will hear about those.

However, what happened at this conference stood in stark contrast to the unity shown in the images of the Together Alliance March in London, where Zack Polanski and Hannah Spencer MP, were leading figures. Is this really the same party? It’s reasonable for people to wonder.

Feelings were running high before the conference, particularly in relation to the Zionism is Racism motion. This motion, if heard, was always going to require a significant chunk of time for members to hear proper debate (including of amendments) and to take a meaningful vote. Without this, any vote would have lacked legitimacy. The principal error was not allowing enough time at this conference for more than a handful of motions to be heard. Making the schedule tight incentivises those who care deeply about certain motions to use procedural tactics to get their way. This was in evidence on both sides of a highly sensitive issue.

Holding the conference online only was understandable for financial and organisational reasons. However, tech unfamiliarity introduces additional challenges and leads to frustrations that boil over when tensions are already heightened by the matters under debate. There was really no reason not to schedule the conference to run across 3 days, to allow time for new members to adjust to the process and to hear many more matters of urgent significance.

Other issues that stymied this conference were also avoidable. Whilst tech issues plague many organisations, the Green Party has consistently failed to invest sufficiently in an IT team and in technology that can cope with our requirements. This time, it seems some basic checks were missed that led to valid challenges about the security of a plan B voting option.

Disappointingly, delays were also caused by internal wrangling within the Standing Orders Committee (SOC) and between SOC and the Green Party Council (GPC). This descended into personal slurs and was embarrassing to behold. Those elected to these important leadership positions have an obligation to resolve their differences ahead of conference and to demonstrate the code of conduct in the way they speak.

We model distributed leadership in the Green Party. It’s an important principle running through what the party stands for. But we need to show it works. Right now, all the leadership teams should be looking critically at themselves and asking what they can do to show collective leadership from now on. Internal power struggles must end; personal differences must be set aside. As CEO, Harriet Lamb needs to turn her attention inward and bring everyone round a table to deal with this.

Leaders may feel restricted because changes to procedure can only be made via a motion to conference themselves – as these often go unheard (no D motions were heard this Spring for example), the party is stuck with the status quo. But there are several measures leaders could take right now that don’t require constitutional change.

  1. Invest more right now in IT staffing and technology.
  2. Starting in Autumn Conference 2026 in Brighton, set aside more time for plenaries to review motions seeking to update both party procedures (D motions) and policies.
  3. Speeches to be scheduled after, not before, plenaries (they always run over and people take time to move in and out of the hall, cutting into precious plenary time).
  4. Proper training and induction to be made available (possibly even mandatory) to new members so that they understand how conference is run.
  5. Put the Philosophical Basis and Core Values back in the public domain. Making public the full set of party policies may be problematic (as much of it is in the process of being updated) but people joining the party need, at a minimum, to know the basic values they are signing up to.

Most urgently of all, the various leaders within the party must get together and collectively lead. Things are reaching boiling point. I am under no illusion of the difficulties of finding a way to consensus or compromise around Zionism is Racism. But whilst we continue to call for unity beyond the party, we cannot let it collapse within.

Image credit: Jon Craig – Creative Commons