Will members hold GPEW to account at the AGM on 9 November?
The Green Party has spent £1,000,000 on legal fees over the last four years, according to a report in PoliticsHome of the joint meeting between Green Party Executive (GPEx) and Green Party Regional Council (GPRC) on Tuesday 8 October 2024. Most of it has been spent on fees to fight – and usually lose – discrimination cases brought by Party members and staff , the most costly and humiliating defeat being Shahrar Ali’s case in February 2024.
The legal fees have led to the rise in membership fees from £3.33 a month to £5 a month, as decided by conference in 2023, and the ending of local party ‘capitations’ from 2023 for the foreseeable future. These are the funds that the central party returns to local parties according to how many members they have.
Greens in Exile urge members to register now via greenparty.org.uk/members to attend the Party’s online AGM on Saturday 9 November and hold the Party to account.
How you can help
- Ask about the committee to review disciplinary matters set up by GPEx on 8 October. What will it do? When will it report? Where is the justice for the Greens in Exile who have been unfairly suspended and summarily expelled?
- Ask GPEx treasurer Julian Cusack for more details about the £1,000,000 legal fees over four years. Legal fees tend to get hidden in the Management and Administration section of the Party accounts and the details are not obvious. The Party’s latest accounts (for 2023) state on page 6 that:
‘Increases to our spending on management and administration has been driven by a small number of members challenging the Party’s processes via Court.’
Page 10 shows that Management and Administration fees were £522,356 in 2023 compared to £371,626 in 2022, which is an increase of over forty per cent. Is this due to the court cases?
- Ask what is the contingency fund to pay for projected legal costs in the cases of Emma Bateman and Dawn Furness?
- Ask the treasurer about the Party’s refusal to pay Shahrar Ali’s legal costs. Having been ordered by the court on 13 Sept 2024 to pay 60% of Shahrar’s costs, the Green Party sought on 11 October 2024 to refuse to pay the full amount (i.e. the full 60%).
- Ask why the GPRC and DC reports for the AGM were prepared by the respective Co-Chairs without reference to any other GPRC and DC committee members. How is it that they blame Greens in Exile – in remarkably similar terms – for the party’s legal woes?