Is the Green Party of England and Wales on the verge of a collective breakdown? That’s the impression given by Shahrar Ali, the party’s deputy leader from 2014 to 2016, in a piece for the Telegraph. His main complaint is about the “authoritarian groupthink” that he says has crept across the party since his time in office. Specifically, he mentions transgender issues and cites the suppression of party members with gender-critical views.

The Greens wouldn’t be the only Left-leaning institution to suffer a woke takeover, but the party’s problems go deeper. Indeed, the Greens are facing an excruciating dilemma — one that’s playing out in the current leadership contest.

On one side, there’s the incumbent co-leader Adrian Ramsay and his running mate Ellie Chowns. On the other, there’s Zack Polanski — a self-declared eco-populist who wants to take the Greens into close alignment with the new Left-wing party that Jeremy Corbyn is establishing.

Some might think that every Green would be in favour of that. But, contrary to Right-wing received opinion, they’re not all “watermelons” — green on the outside but red on the inside. Instead, many party members are “mangoes”: they are also outwardly green, but at heart are not unlike the Liberal Democrats. They’re opposed to predatory capitalism, of course, yet also suspicious of the over-centralised state.

This is the sort of eccentric bourgeois radicalism despised by doctrinaire socialists, but which has helped the Greens conquer true blue territory across rural England. It’s no coincidence that both Ramsay and Chowns are MPs for previously Conservative constituencies. Yet there are very few, if any, Tory seats that are vulnerable to further Green advances. If the Greens want to expand their parliamentary representation, then their best prospects lie in studenty urban seats such as Bristol South, Bristol East and Sheffield Central. To win here, an arrangement with the Corbynites wouldn’t just be helpful but essential.

Then, there’s the balance of opinion among the 28% of Britons who would consider voting Green. According to YouGov research, these skew strongly towards the youngest, most highly-educated parts of the electorate. A notable 52% of them believe that the Greens “should focus on being a left-wing party” as opposed to 33% who want the focus on environmentalism. There’s also a strong preference for having one leader instead of the Greens’ distinctive co-leadership model. Support for an electoral pact with “similarly minded parties” is overwhelming — and the “new Corbyn-led left-wing party” is top of the list.

Logically, a red-green alliance is the Greens’ best chance of gaining real power and influence. It would, however, come at a cost. If the Tories and Reform can credibly portray the Greens as a home for the hard Left, then the party’s position in the English shires will be imperilled. More serious still is the threat to the party’s unique character. With former Corbynites such as Owen Jones and Grace Blakeley becoming the most prominent Green supporters, the party as we knew it is being eclipsed.

The tensions are already on show. In a deeply awkward viral clip, Ramsay was repeatedly asked by LBC’s Iain Dale whether he “liked” Polanski. Eventually, Ramsay felt compelled to say that he did, but I’ve seen happier performances in a hostage video. These emotions are understandable, though. As with the Tories over Brexit, the losers don’t just stand to lose a leadership election, but the party they once believed in.

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Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.

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