The Power of One: Making an Impact as the only Green MP

Caroline Lucas was invited to The Institute for Government to talk about her experience as the UK's first Green MP. Winner of the Women in Public Life Awards ‘MP of the Year', and ‘Newcomer of the Year' in the Spectator's 2010 Parliamentarian of the Year Awards, Caroline Lucas has been praised for the impact she has made so far. 

The discussion was chaired by Lord Andrew Adonis, Director of The Institute for Government.

Caroline Lucas MP, the leader of the Green Party, gave an audience at the Institute for Government a hard hitting account of her experience's as the party's first and so far only Member of Parliament, the difficulties of being in that position and her broader views on Parliament and government. Caroline discussed the challenges of influencing policy from the backbenches, and how the dynamics of the coalition affects her job.

In her opinion, the work and workings of Westminster were very inefficient and geared towards maintaining the power of the major parties and minimising the impact of independent (and independently-minded) Members. This ranged from decisions about which bill amendments were debated to the allocation of offices. MPs are not helpless though; they can help their constituents and promote debate and change, for example by putting forward amendments (as Lucas did over including Trident in the Strategic Defence and Security Review), influencing bills in committee and co-sponsoring bills.

The Greens see their main role in Parliament as articulating an opposition voice in a House dominated by the Coalition Government and official Opposition who seem broadly to agree on many issues. As the sole Green MP, Lucas focuses her work on areas of particular concern to her constituents in Brighton Pavilion, such as housing, and issues where other parties do not speak out, such as opposition to nuclear power. A major problem is that the electoral system militates against small parties and independent candidates. The cost of raising deposits to fight every seat, for example, is greater than the entire Green Party campaign budget for a general election.

The male domination of Parliament can undermine policy making, for example through a lack of personal knowledge of issues affecting women. Also the adversarial nature of the system tends to stifle debate on important longer term issues such as the environment and sustainability. Lucas has proposed a scheduled electronic voting system that would still allow the mingling of MPs that many value about the current arrangements but with less wasted time. She also criticised the lack of drafting clarity which means that MPs often vote without understanding what they are voting for.

She recognised that there was a risk of independents ‘going native' once elected to Parliament. It is harder to criticise when targets are colleagues, while learning to play the game can lead towards acceptance of the status quo and forgetting why one was elected in the first place. To counteract this Lucas tries to speak out on issues that would otherwise be unheard in Parliament, such as the steady-state economy.

She also argued that valuable parts of government and the public sector are under threat and need to be strengthened. This included the impartiality of the Civil Service, which was vital to their policy making role but was threatened by the erosion of the concept of it being a career for life and through secondments between the Civil Service and business, which risked skewing civil servants' behaviour in favour of future possible (or current) private sector employers. The involvement of the private sector in the delivery of public services, for which there appeared to be little public support, also posed major risks, particularly with the three main parties all apparently committed to the use of market forces in the public sector.

More information

• Read Caroline Lucas' speech.