The principal speakers performed the public and media roles undertaken by the leaders of more conventional political parties.
Green parties often consider joint leadership of this kind to embody the widely held Green beliefs in
consensus decision making and
gender balance. It also symbolises their belief in the need for a society in which people are empowered and involved in making the decisions which affect them. In the party's
Philosophical Basis, it states that the
Green Party "reject[s] the hierarchical structure of leaders and followers, and, instead advocate[s] participatory politics" and it is "for this reason" that the Green Party has eschewed an individual leader. There were six principal speakers in the
UK Green Party until 1991, when changes introduced by the
Green 2000 grouping reduced this to two and streamlined the organisation of the party. This left a system with which neither side in the 2007 leadership referendum was happy.
2007 Leadership referendum At the party's 2007 spring conference in
Swansea, members voted to hold a cross-party referendum on whether the posts should be changed to leader and deputy leader (with the option for co-leaders if two candidates chose to run together and were gender balanced, in the event of which there would be no deputy leader). The new system would allow the leader and deputy (or co-leaders) to vote on GPEx and, rather than being elected annually (like the principal speakers), the posts would be elected every two years. Provisions for recalling the leader and deputy were articulated. Despite the controversial nature of this issue, many participants, such as
Siân Berry, were struck by the how "constructive" the debate turned out to be. On Friday 30 November 2007 the ballots were counted and members voted 73% to 27% in favour of the new leadership model, with a 48.3% turnout of Green Party members.
The 'Pro-Leader' side – Green Yes Supporters of the 'Green Yes' campaign for a yes vote in the referendum included the then-principal speaker
Caroline Lucas MEP,
Siân Berry,
Darren Johnson AM (a
Green member of the
London Assembly), environmental commentator and
Green member
Mark Lynas, former principal speaker
Jonathon Porritt, councillors from Lewisham, Brighton, Norwich, Leicester and Lancaster, and members of the Green Party Executive (GPEx), including
Jim Killock (external communications officer), elections coordinator
Peter Cranie and
Khalid Hussenbux, the party's financial coordinator. The Green Yes campaign believed that the Green Party needed a leader to reach its potential and that, if the party did not reach its potential, it would be "selling-short our planet and everything on it". They suggested that the party's success has been too slow and that "a leader would help set direction, political focus and make sure the party gets the resources to grow". The campaign hoped that having a Leader would be "about empowering the party" and "about accountability", in that a Leader would "mean we can identify who to hold to account when things need changing". The group added that other
Green Parties in the world had leaders and remained "just as Green as the rest of us".
Darren Johnson characterized the lack of single leader as "just a ridiculous barrier in terms of getting our really important message across".
The 'Anti-Leader' side – Green Empowerment Supporters of the 'Green Empowerment' campaign for a no vote in the leadership referendum included the then-Principal Speaker
Derek Wall,
Jenny Jones AM (a
Green member of the
London Assembly), the late
Timothy Beaumont (
Green member of the
House of Lords), prominent human rights campaigner and
Green member
Peter Tatchell,
Noel Lynch (London
Green Party Coordinator and former
London Assembly member), councillors from Scarborough, Lewisham, York, Norwich and Hackney, and members of the Green Party Executive (GPEx), including Campaigns Coordinator, Tim Summers, and Pete McAskie (Management Coordinator). Some members, like
Matt Sellwood, while in favour of a Leader system in principle, were opposed to the current referendum because the term of reelection would be extended to two years. Supporters of Green Empowerment wanted to "uphold the Green Party's long-standing commitment to non-hierarchical structures and 'grassroots' democracy" through "collective leadership". They believed that a single leader "would not only draw attention away from other speakers and the wider Party, but would bring with it risks that the other parties in this country are all too well aware of". The campaign focused on retaining
gender balance in party structures, and avoiding the dilution of their radical policies. They focused on success under the Principal Speaker system, seen in the steady buildup of support from the low point of the
1992 general election to the situation at the time of the referendum, where the party has over 100 councilors along with two members of the
European Parliament and two members of the
London Assembly. In 2018,
Siân Berry replaced Lucas as co-leader, with Bartley continuing in the role. In July 2021, Bartley announced he would be standing down as the party's co-leader at the end of the month, triggering the
2021 Green Party of England and Wales leadership election. Berry remained as acting leader, but decided not to stand in the leadership election due to her concerns over the party's message on
trans rights. In her statement, she cited unspecified spokesperson appointments as being inconsistent with her pledge to support trans equality. ==Leaders==