Exile Peter Garbutt

Exile Peter Garbutt

I joined Sheffield Green Party (SGP) in 2006 following a years long search for a political home.

I immediately felt at home in the Greens; the democracy, the compassion, the science-based policy all appealed to me. I threw myself into electoral work, outreach to other groups, Party management. I lived and breathed Green Party.

I was on the Exec for many years, including SGP chair in 2012, and Social Media officer for a couple of years, giving a talk on it to Yorkshire and the Humber GP. I organised meetings, including one on TTIP, which was the first SGP meeting Magid Magid attended. I was active on the Exec, on Elections committee and on Campaigns committee, where I was one of a small group seeking (eventually successfully) to get the local Party to become involved in the trees dispute for which Sheffield became famous. 

I marched in demos and gave speeches. I helped produce leaflets, created leaflet rounds, delivered leaflets. I managed ward campaigns. I stood as a ward candidate in 2014, getting 19% of the vote in my home ward, setting it up to go safely Green shortly thereafter. In 2015 I was GP candidate in Hallam constituency, attending a huge number of hustings. I stood again in a local election in 2016, getting 23% of the vote. 

It started to go sour for me in 2018 when I attended the national conference in Bristol, and became aware for the first time of the inherently threatening nature of the trans group in the Party.

Nevertheless, I was persuaded to stand in local elections again in 2019 and was elected as a councillor, gaining 56% of the vote, largely as a result of Alison Teal’s great work on the trees issue.

I stood down in 2023, no longer able to participate in the councillor group because too many of them were trans allies. I was sad to give up my work on the Police and Crime Panel where I was beginning to make some headway on the way the police approached Domestic Abuse; but it was with huge relief that I no longer had to deal with the councillor group shenanigans.

Earlier this year I put myself forward for selection to be the Police and Crime Commissioner candidate, hoping to be able to highlight the policing problems around DA and VAWG, but was sadly unsuccessful.

“I joined a small group of members agitating for Alison Teal’s NFS to be lifted; when it wasn’t and Alison decided to stand as an independent, I, along with others, decided to help her campaign. She was, after all, the only constitutionally selected candidate.

As a result, I was ejected from the Party.”

The Green Party is no longer the democratic Party I joined. It has weaponised the compassion, but all in one direction. And it has made a total mockery of science-based policy-making.

It is no longer fit for purpose.