Green Party Spend £1m on Legal Fees In Four Years As Gender Rows Continue
4 min read
The Green Party has spent £1m over four years fighting legal battles against its own members, as divisions over gender continue to threaten the party’s finances.
The Greens have faced at least four legal cases since 2022 – the majority relating to members claiming they have been discriminated against over their gender critical beliefs.
The most prominent case was brought forward by former deputy Green Party leader Shahrar Ali, who received a £90,000 payout from the Greens after he claimed senior party figures had “collaborated” to remove him from his post as policing spokesman over his “gender critical” views. He was also paid £9,100 in damages in February by the party.
The party’s financial auditors had previously noted Ali’s case left ”uncertainty” about its ability to keep running normally. In consequence, party members voted to increase membership fees from £3.33 a month to £5 a month at their conference last year.
The amount spent by the party on legal fees has infuriated party members. One member, who preferred to remain anonymous, said Green Party supporters donate “their hard-earned cash to help fight the climate and nature emergency”, not to “engage in some fanatical persecution of members for the sake of a toxic ideology”.
They added that the “eye-watering amount” represents around a third of the party’s annual income, lamenting “how much real good could have been achieved if the party steered back to focusing on important environmental issues”.
Ali told PoliticsHome that the Green Party appears ”still not to have learned their lesson”, and said "concerted action" will be needed to "combat the authoritarian corruption which has infested the party".
Last week, a meeting was held between the Green Party Executive (GPEx) and the Green Party Regional Council (GPRC) to discuss the formation of a new disciplinary body focussed on legal compliance within the party.
A source present at the meeting claimed a Committee member “accidentally” revealed that the party had spent £1m on legal fees over the past four years fighting discrimination cases brought forward by its members.
The source recalled Edward Milford, who sits on GPEx, saying: ‘it's really serious; we've spent £1m in four years”. They added that “everyone gasped” at the admission.
A Green Party spokesperson did not deny that amount of money had been spent, stating they “don't comment on discussions in internal meetings of the party”.
Co-Leader Adrian Ramsay and Deputy Leader Zack Polanski were present at the meeting, but Co-Leader Carla Denyer, recognised for her pro trans rights position, was absent.
The source said Polanski made a “weird speech appealing to emotions”, admitting the party needs “the right procedures” but that they should “not be threatened by lawfare”.
The source added that because meetings are “very badly chaired sometimes”, there was little questioning as to what the £1m figure was “made of”; and that “presumably” it was a “total” of pay outs and legal advice.
Another source close to the Green Party said that “a significant majority of the money” was spent on claims concerning sex and gender. However, at least one case, which was settled outside of court, related to racial discrimination against a party member.
While the Greens have boosted their coffers via General Election fundraising, a leaked memo from the Party’s Treasurer shared with PoliticsHome describes increases to their spending on legal fees as a “continuing concern”.
In a report shared internally ahead of the Green Party’s annual general meeting in November, the party’s finance co-ordinator and registered treasurer Julian Cusack said that “increases to our spending” have been driven by “a small number of members challenging the Party’s processes via court”.
Cusack wrote that the party “continues to seek legal advice from its solicitors with regards to each of the outstanding cases”. He added it is “possible” there will be “future payments in the defence and settlement of one or more of these cases”, putting a “best estimate” of these potential payments at £280,000.
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