Green Party leader on Bristol bin-bags, bats, and ‘hate-filled’ message of Reform UK
The Green Party has only one House of Commons seat less than Reform UK, so why does it feel like it has so much less influence, and what’s its vision for the country?
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In brief…
- Adrian Ramsay, co-leader of The Green Party, tells Lewis Goodall that his party would never employ the tactic of Reform UK and Nigel Farage to make headlines or attract attention.
- He believes the “hopeful vision” the Greens present will allow the party to continue to grow, and will be seen as an insurgent left party to rival the rise of the right wing.
- Ramsay accuses Rachel Reeves of breaking Labour’s own climate commitments with Heathrow plans.
Four elected MPs, and more than 800 local councillors across the UK – and yet The Green Party often seems largely absent from the national conversation.
It has just one less seat in the House of Commons than Reform UK, and yet the right-wing populists, (and its leader Nigel Farage), manage to insert themselves into every twist and turn in UK politics.
Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay believes this is only happening for the most negative of reasons.
“If we look at why Reform have captured the media headlines – and greater poll ratings – it’s because they have been willing to be very populist, and – frankly – whip up hatred in order to stir media headlines, grab attention,” he tells Lewis Goodall.
“That's something that the Green Party is not willing to do.
“We would never go down the line that Reform has gone down, pressing whatever buttons they think are going to get support, even if that results in stirring up further tensions that have only got greater in society.”
Can the Green’s ‘hopeful’ vision challenge Reform’s ‘hate-filled’ messaging?
Ramsay has co-led The Green Party since 2021, and became an MP for Waveney Valley in 2024, describing the party’s gains as making it a “significant force” in UK politics.
But while he is keen to distance himself from the actions of Reform UK, he says it is the same disillusionment in this country’s political system that has drawn voters to the Greens.
“The growth that we've seen for the Green Party in the last general election, over recent years, and the growth of Reform in the polls, highlights is that people are looking for an alternative to the two tired old parties that have been in government between them for as long as anyone can remember,” Ramsay says.
“That's because people are feeling let down. They're feeling not heard, and that is understandable.”
But while the UK – and the wider world – has seen a clear rise of the insurgent right wing, Ramsay believes the same can be said of the left, and that the Green’s success in the 2024 election demonstrates this.
“We clearly are insurgent, because we're clearly growing,” he says.
He believes the Greens, and other “insurgent left” parties, will become increasingly relevant in the coming years, as big questions are asked about the direction of politics, and whether it moves to the left, or further right.
“I certainly feel a sense of responsibility to show that if people are increasingly, understandably looking for an alternative to the two tired old parties, they can choose a hopeful future and not the hate-filled approach that Nigel Farage is offering,” he says.
Is Labour ‘busting’ its own climate promises?
In the short term, he says the Greens will focus on a “collaborative” approach to politics in the UK – working with the Labour government on policies it agrees with, and pushing back on those it doesn’t.
Ramsay says he approves of Labour’s incoming water bill (although believes it lacks “urgency” needed to tackle the UK’s sewage problem) but stands against scrapping the winter fuel payments and making UK farmers pay inheritance tax, saying these both impact his constituents.
He’s firmly against Rachel Reeves' commitment to a third runway at Heathrow airport, and her comments about habitats for “bats and newts” causing hurdles in planning and developments.
He accuses Rachel Reeves of "totally busting" Labour’s own climate commitments, describing the Heathrow expansion as a "big, climate-wrecking project”, and singling out bats and newts as an example to make a point, when the UK is now “one of the most nature depleted countries on earth”.
“We've got to have a future where our soils are healthy enough to produce our food,” Ramsay says.
“There are questions over whether we'll be able to do that within the next couple of decades. We need to have an environment where we've got clean water, where we've got clean air to breathe.
“Nature is crucial to our very existence, to a very quality of life, to not having a future where there's wars over whether people can produce food and feed their family.”
He does agree with Reeves on the opportunities offered by green energy, saying the UK should be manufacturing the components it needs, rather than importing from overseas.
Growing the economy and ‘bats and newts’
When it comes to growing the UK economy, which Rachel Reeves and the Labour government is committed to, Ramsay says he believes there needs to be a different approach to how growth is identified and judged.
“Simply measuring the amount of GDP in the economy is a decades-old instrument that modern economists don't treat seriously in terms of measuring economic success.”
“We need to be measuring what actually matters to people. Do they have access to healthcare when they need it? Have we got good quality air? Are we going to have a liveable future for our children? Have people got lasting skilled jobs?”
The Green Party recently made headlines by suggesting that Bristol, where fellow party co-leader Carla Denyer is MP, could see its bin collections reduced to just once a month.
Ramsay says he has had no conversation with his representatives in Bristol, and insists they will make "decisions based on the budget constraints that they're facing."
He adds that in his own constituency, there are also discussions about reducing collections of black bin bags whilst increasing recycling collections.
What does the future hold for The Green Party?
Ramsay insists there is more to The Green Party in 2025 than bin-bags and concerns for small animals.
He believes support for the alternative politics it could offer will continue to grow, as support for the political status quo continues to decline.
“For people who are looking for an alternative to those who've been in government and not delivered for them in recent decades, they've got a big choice to make,” Ramsay says.
This choice, he adds, is between “whipping up hatred” with Reform UK, or a more “hopeful vision” from the Greens.
“We are being tough with developers to make sure we're building the affordable homes that we need, and yes, we are taking the action to ensure we have a liveable future for our children, rather than sewage in our rivers.
“We will press the government to be bolder, because in one of the richest countries in the world, we have the ability to address these things.”