Growing Pains: Inside The Green Party Gender Row

With four MPs in Westminster, the Green Party is enjoying record-breaking success. However, behind closed doors, the party is navigating a fierce debate on gender issues, which some say could “tear the party apart”. 

With the Conservative vote imploding, and Labour losing support over its stance on Gaza, the Green Party offered an alternative for disaffected voters at this election. The Greens have now quadrupled their number of MPs in Parliament, and are feeling buoyant.

However, trouble is brewing within the party. With Labour’s Corbynite flank welcomed into the fold, more traditional, environmentally focused Green Party members are feeling sidelined by an influx of younger, more socially liberal types motivated by identity politics.

Nowhere is this tension more stark than on gender issues. Since 2021,10 members of Green Party Women (GPW), a group founded to “defend and extend the rights of women and girls”, have been suspended or expelled from the party. At least 17 signatories of the Green Women’s Declaration, which advocates for women as a sex, have faced the same.

The official reasons for these expulsions vary. However, the group are united in believing this is a fundamental attack on women who defend their sex-based rights.

It has emerged that another Green Party Women chair has been expelled.

Amanda Stones was expelled in July for breaching a clause of the party’s constitution which prohibits members from campaigning for someone standing against a Green Party candidate.

She was told by the Green Party Regional Council (GPRC), which oversees disciplinary processes, that she had been campaigning on behalf of Sheffield Central Independent candidate Alison Teal via an anoymised X account.

Teal was suspended from the Green