Green Leaders

The latest news is that Darren Johnson won't be standing for the Deputy Leader position. He has a lot on as Lewisham Deptford target candidate and chairing two committees on the GLA. We also have the very real prospect of a simultaneous General and Local Election in May 2010, which means an incredibly amount of work locally, especially in London where council elections only happen once every four years.

Being cheeky, I'm copying Jim Killock's poll idea, but narrowing down to a few people that I consider could credibly stand for the Leadership position. I think without Darren standing, we can rule out many people's preferred co-leader choice of Caroline Lucas and Darren Johnson. Realistically, Darren is probably the only person in the party that has the current electoral authority to be treated equally to Caroline by the media, and were Caroline to stand as co-leader with anyone else, it would not be credible.

As someone who has always advocated co-leadership as the next step for the party, there is a tinge of disappointment for me about this, but it is not unexpected. As a party, we've taken a bold step in reforming our structures to enable us to elect a Leader / Deputy if that is what members vote for. We have a huge opportunity to get someone to challenge the grey leadership of the other parties, and I hope we seize it.