Caroline Lucas, the Green Party’s sole MP of the last five years, was confident of retaining her seat as she canvassed in her Brighton Pavilion constituency on the eve of what she says is a crucial election for her party and environmental politics across the UK.
Stationed outside a Waitrose in central Brighton, Ms Lucas rebutted accusations that the party had failed to talk enough about the environment in its election campaigning. Ms Lucas called the charge “unfair” and insisted that the party has successfully managed to broaden its focus while retaining its fundamental commitment to the environment. “When it comes to talking about the environment, you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t,” Ms Lucas told The Independent. “At the last election people said we were a single-issue party. This is the first election where we have got messages across on other issues like health, the economy, education and austerity. We have demonstrated for the first time that we are not a single-issue party – but we have absolutely been talking about the environment.” Natalie Bennett, who took over from Ms Lucas as Green Party leader nearly three years ago, was the only person in the election debates to mention climate change, which she did in both events, Ms Lucas said. This is in stark contrast to the other party leaders, who seem to have “forgotten completely” the dangers it poses, Ms Lucas said. Despite being named MP of the Year in 2014 in recognition of her work standing up for minority and deprived communities and being the bookies’ favourite – with odds of 2/9 – her re-election is by no means assured. Ms Lucas is fighting a close contest with Labour candidate Purna Sen, who is benefiting from Brighton and Hove’s unpopular Green Council. Ms Lucas has conceded that her cause has not been helped by the council, which has been mired in internal disputes and a long period of disruption in waste collection. Nonetheless, Ms Lucas believes she will win the contest and that the Green Party even has a chance of getting a second seat, in Bristol West. But she is also concerned about losing her seat, an outcome that would inflict huge damage. “It would be a huge blow if I’m not re-elected. It would send back the cause of green politics,” she said. Ms Lucas said she has no regrets about handing the leadership to Ms Bennett, who has been criticised for her performance under tough questioning in media interviews. “Natalie is doing an excellent job of mobilising supporters across the length and breadth of the country,” Ms Lucas said. “We had 13,000 members a year ago and now we have 62,000 and its still going up fast. I wanted to focus more on my constituency, which means being in Brighton – not Birmingham, Bogna [Regis] or Bolton as leader.”
