Caroline Patricia Lucas (born 9 December 1960) is a British politician who was the leader of the Green Party of England and Wales from 2003 to 2006, 2007 to 2012, and from 2016 to 2018. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Brighton Pavilion from 2010 to 2024. She was the Green Party's first MP (although Plaid Cymru's Cynog Dafis was elected on a joint ticket in the 1990s) and their only MP until the 2024 general election.
Born in Malvern in Worcestershire, Lucas graduated from the University of Exeter and the University of Kansas before receiving a PhD from the University of Exeter in 1989. She joined the Green Party in 1986 and held various party roles, also serving on Oxfordshire County Council from 1993 to 1997. She was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England in 1999 and re-elected in 2004 and 2009,Greens Pick MEP Lucas to Run for MP , Brighton Argus, 18 July 2007 also serving as the party's female Principal Speaker from 2003 to 2006 and from 2007 to 2008.
Lucas was elected the first leader of the Green Party in 2008 and was selected to represent the constituency of Brighton Pavilion in the 2010 general election, becoming the party's first MP. She stood down as party leader in 2012 to devote more time to her parliamentary duties and focus on the election campaign. She returned as party leader from September 2016 to September 2018, sharing the post with Jonathan Bartley. She stated in June 2023 that she would not stand at the 2024 general election.
Early life and education Lucas was born in Malvern in Worcestershire, to middle-class, Conservative Party-voting parents, Peter and Valerie (née Griffin) Lucas. She is one of three children. Her father ran a small central heating company, and sold solar panelling. Her mother stayed at home to bring up their children.
Lucas was educated at Malvern Girls' College (which became Malvern St James in 2006), a boarding private school in Great Malvern. She then went to the University of Exeter, where she gained a first-class BA (Hons) in English Literature in 1983. While at university, Lucas went on many trips to Greenham Common women's peace camp and Molesworth peace camp when involved with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Lucas was an activist in CND and was involved in the Snowball campaign against US military bases in the UK, which involved cutting fences with the expectation of being arrested.
Lucas won a scholarship to attend the University of Kansas between 1983 and 1984, gaining a diploma of journalism, before studying for a PhD degree in English from the University of Exeter, awarded in 1990, with a thesis entitled Writing for women: a study of woman as reader in Elizabethan romance. While completing her doctorate, Lucas worked as a press officer for Oxfam from 1989. She later worked for the charity in other roles, became active in the Green Party, and left Oxfam in 1999.
Life and career
Early political career After being "utterly inspired" by Jonathon Porritt's book Seeing Green, Lucas joined the Green Party in 1986. She noticed that the Green Party office was in Clapham, where she was living at the time, so thought: "Right! I'm going there now, I'm just going to dedicate the rest of my life to this party". Soon afterwards she became the party's National Press Officer (1987–1989) and Co-Chair (1989–1990).
When the Green Party became three separate parties in 1990 for the constituent parts of the United Kingdom, she joined the Green Party of England and Wales. Lucas served as their General Election Speaker from 1991 (for the following year's general election) and a Regional Council Member from 1997.
Lucas's first success in an election came when she gained the Green Party's second council seat in the UK on Oxfordshire County Council, which she held between 1993 and 1997.
European Parliament Lucas was first elected as a Member of the European Parliament for the South East England Region at the 1999 elections, the first year the election was by proportional representation. In that year, the Green Party gained 7.4% of the vote (110,571 votes). In November 2001, she was convicted of a breach of the peace at the Faslane nuclear base in Scotland the previous February, and was fined £150 for her participation in a CND sit-down protest. Conducting her own defence at the trial, she pleaded not guilty. Lucas argued that she had a right under the Human Rights Act to peaceful protest following on from her firm anti-nuclear attitudes. Faslane is the base used for Britain's Trident nuclear programme. She was arrested for a protest at the same location in January 2007. "It still seems ironic that it is a non-violent demonstration that is judged to be a breach of the peace, rather than Britain's illegal and immoral possession of nuclear weapons", she wrote at the time.
Lucas was re-elected in 2004, gaining 173,351 votes (8% share), and again in the 2009 election when the party's vote under the list system rose to 271,506, or 11.6%. In the European Parliament, she was a member of the Committee for Trade, Industry, Energy and Research; the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy; the Committee on International Trade; and the Temporary Committee on Climate Change. She held the party's post of Female Principal Speaker from 2003 to 2006 and from 2007 to 2008.Dr. Caroline Lucas MEP , in the European Parliament.
First period as leader (2008–2012)
Lucas was elected as the Green Party's first leader on 5 September 2008, gaining 92% of the vote (against one other candidate, Ashley Gunstock) on a turnout of 38%. Previously, the party had operated under a collective leadership. She said the change "was about having a face the country recognises, or hopefully comes to recognise. It was in recognition of the fact that people don't really relate to abstract ideas, they relate more to the people who embody them". Lucas was elected as the Green Party's first-ever MP (for Brighton Pavilion) at the general election of 2010.
In July 2010, Lucas expressed her support for seven campaigners of the Smash EDO campaign who had caused approximately £180,000 damage to the local EDO MBM arms factory and were acquitted of conspiring to cause criminal damage. The jury accepted their defence of lawful excuse – action undertaken to prevent a much worse crime – because the company manufactured and sold certain components used by the Israeli military, notably in its assault on Gaza. Lucas stated that she was "absolutely delighted the jury has recognised that the actions of the decommissioners were a legitimate response to the atrocities being committed in Gaza. I do not advocate non-violent direct action lightly [but] their actions were driven by the responsibility to prevent further suffering in Gaza". In 2011 she voted against the military intervention in Libya.
On 14 May 2012, Lucas announced she would be standing down as leader as of September 2012.
Brighton Pavilion
Brighton Pavilion had the highest vote in the 2005 general election for a Green Party candidate when Keith Taylor, a former Green Party Principal Speaker, gained 22% of the vote. In 2007, Lucas declared her intention to stand for the Green Party's nomination for the prospective parliamentary candidate in the Brighton Pavilion constituency for the next general election. In a letter to party members, she indicated that she would only stand if she won the internal party selection election by more than 10%, to avoid internal division."Greens battle to be the first MP" , The Argus, Brighton, 14 June 2007 On 18 July 2007, it was announced that Lucas had been selected by the Brighton Green Party. Lucas won with 55% of the party ballot against Keith Taylor's 45%.
In May 2010, Lucas was elected as the first solely-Green MP to Westminster with a majority of 1,252 (Cynog Dafis sat as a 'joint ticket' Plaid Cymru-Green MP from 1992 to 1997). She was also the first woman to be elected as an MP for Brighton. Lucas delivered her maiden speech on 27 May 2010.
Lucas opposed the presentation of bare-breasted models on page 3 in The Sun and in 2013 was reprimanded for transgressing the Westminster dress code by wearing a T-shirt with the logo "No More Page Three" to protest against the feature during a Commons debate.
On 19 August 2013, Lucas was arrested at a non-violent protest against Cuadrilla Resources fracking operations in Sussex. She was subsequently charged with obstructing a public highway, but was found not guilty on 17 April 2014 at Brighton Magistrates' Court. Following the hearing, Lucas said: "This judgement is right but this is not a victory or cause for celebration. We will continue to campaign to end fracking and only celebrate when our world is on the path to a clean energy future".
In the 2015 general election, Lucas was re-elected with a much increased majority of 7,967 and vote share. In the 2017 general election Lucas increased her majority to 14,689, elected on 52.3% of the vote. Her vote majority increased again in the 2019 election by 5% with 33,151 votes.
In accord with long-standing Green Party policy, Lucas voted in 2015 for holding the European Union Referendum, but campaigning to stay in the EU with major reform.
On 8 June 2023, Lucas announced she would not be standing at the 2024 general election. On 19 July 2023, it was announced that Siân Berry would be the Green candidate for Lucas' Brighton seat at the next election.
Co-leader with Jonathan Bartley On 31 May 2016, it was announced that Lucas would run for the position of the Leader of the Green Party in a job share arrangement with the welfare spokesman Jonathan Bartley in the forthcoming 2016 Green Party leadership election.
On 2 September, it was announced that Lucas and Bartley had been elected with 86% of first-preference votes. Lucas said the party would strive to preserve the rights of EU nationals living in Britain, and EU rules on workers' rights and the environment, among other policies.
On 30 May 2018, Lucas announced that at the end of her two-year term in September, she would not seek re-election as co-leader of the Green Party. In an article for The Guardian, Lucas wrote that "it's now time for me to show the power of letting go".
Other roles and views Lucas is a supporter of animal rights and welfare and an advocate for major reform to the food and agricultural system. She served as vice-president of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but resigned in December 2024 following investigations showing animal cruelty at RSPCA Assured farms. She has encouraged policymakers to consider a meat tax to promote more humane farming methods and incentivise the adoption of plant-based diets to reduce food-related greenhouse gas emissions. In 2021, she expressed support for the Plant Based Treaty and urged the Government to include food system reform in its climate agenda.
Lucas was on the National Council of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament since 2004, and is currently a Vice-President. She was Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil and Gas. A former Vice-President of the Stop the War Coalition, she resigned from the post in December 2015; stating that her "busy parliamentary and constituency schedule means that she doesn't have time to fully engage with the role and, in light of some recent StWC positions that she didn't support, she felt standing down was the responsible thing to do".
Lucas is an advocate for reform of UK drug laws. She has called for the law to have an evidence-based approach to drugs that treats drug abuse as a health matter, rather than a criminal one.
In early 2013, Lucas co-signed a letter that was published in The Guardian newspaper and officially marked her support for the People's Assembly Against Austerity movement. She also gave a speech at the People's Assembly conference, held at Westminster Central Hall on 22 June 2013.