Caroline Patricia Lucas (born 9 December 1960) is a British politician who has twice led the Green Party of England and Wales and has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brighton Pavilion since the 2010 general election. She was re-elected in the 2015, 2017 and 2019 general elections, increasing her majority each time.
Born in Malvern in Worcestershire, Lucas graduated from the University of Exeter and the University of Kansas before receiving a PhD from the University of Exeter in 1989. She joined the Green Party in 1986 and held various party roles, also serving on Oxfordshire County Council from 1993 to 1997. She was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England in 1999 and re-elected in 2004 and 2009, also serving as the party's female Principal Speaker from 2003 to 2006 and from 2007 to 2008.
Lucas was elected the first leader of the Green Party in 2008 and was selected to represent the constituency of Brighton Pavilion in the 2010 general election, becoming the party's first MP. She stood down as party leader in 2012 to devote more time to her parliamentary duties and focus on an ultimately successful campaign to be re-elected as an MP. She returned as party leader from September 2016 to September 2018, sharing the post with Jonathan Bartley. She stated in June 2023 that she would not stand at the next general election.
Lucas is known as a campaigner and writer on green economics, localisation, alternatives to globalisation, trade justice, animal welfare and food. In her time as a politician and activist, she has worked with non-governmental organizations and think tanks, including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and Oxfam.
Early life and education
Lucas was born in Malvern in Worcestershire, to middle-class, Conservative-voting parents Peter and Valerie (née Griffin) Lucas. She is one of three children; her father ran a small central heating company, and sold solar panelling. Her mother stayed at home to bring up their children.
Lucas was educated at Malvern Girls' College (which became Malvern St James in 2006), a boarding private school in Great Malvern. She then went to the University of Exeter, where she gained a first-class BA (Hons) in English Literature in 1983. While at university Lucas went on many trips to Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp and Molesworth peace camp when involved with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Lucas was an activist in CND and was involved in the Snowball Campaign against US military bases in the UK, which involved cutting fences with the expectation of being arrested.
Lucas won a scholarship to attend the University of Kansas between 1983 and 1984, gaining a Diploma of Journalism, before studying for a PhD degree in English from the University of Exeter, awarded in 1990, with a thesis entitled Writing for Women: a study of woman as reader in Elizabethan romance. While completing her doctorate, Lucas worked as a press officer for Oxfam from 1989; she later worked for the charity in other roles, became active in the Green Party and left Oxfam in 1999.
Life and career
Early political career
After being "utterly inspired" by Jonathon Porritt's book Seeing Green, Lucas joined the Green Party in 1986. She noticed that the Green Party office was in Clapham, where she was living at the time, so thought: "Right! I'm going there now, I'm just going to dedicate the rest of my life to this party'." Soon afterwards she became the party's National Press Officer (1987–1989) and Co-Chair (1989–1990). In a 2009 Guardian interview, she told Decca Aitkenhead: "when I was putting people up to go on TV programmes I'd be saying to them, 'What are you planning to wear?', and they'd be slightly offended that I'd even think of asking the question. But I do genuinely think that has changed, a lot. It's a recognition, not that there's some kind of terrible compromise about putting on a tie, but that actually you don't want people to be focusing on what you look like but on what you're saying".
When the Green Party became three separate parties in 1990 for the constituent parts of the United Kingdom, she joined the Green Party of England and Wales. Lucas served as their General Election Speaker from 1991 (for the following year's general election) and a Regional Council Member from 1997.
Lucas's first success in an election came when she gained the Green Party's second council seat in the UK on Oxfordshire County Council, which she held between 1993 and 1997.