call to ” end the purge” on the eve of conference by veteran from salsbury green party

This is a late motion submitted by Brig Outbridge, a long standing member of the Green Party who has served on its Standing Orders Committee (SOC) for many years. A founding member of the Ecology Party and highly respected by all, Brig is a member of Salbury Green Party.

Motion

Title : End the Purge

Since the 2024 General Election has taken place, it is now possible to discuss openly and frankly governance failings within the Green Party without prejudicing the Party’s chances in that election.

This Conference notes, deplores and is appalled by the on-going campaign of mass suspensions and expulsions from the Party carried out by a majority of members of the Green Party Regional Council (GPRC) against members, many of whom are of long-standing and distinguished service within the Party, who have supported women’s sex-based rights, and/or opposed the medical abuse of children and young people as exposed by the Cass Report, and/or even sought to discuss these issues or allowed others to discuss these issues, or have supported other members who have been victims of this mass suspension and expulsion campaign.

This campaign has substantially intensified during the past year and escalated further beyond the deadline for motions for this Autumn Conference, and has included:

• the removal by GPEx of former Deputy Party Leader Shahrar Ali from his position as a Party Spokesperson (which the Court subsequently found to have been an act of unlawful discrimination and in breach of the Equality Act);
• the suspension for 19 months without any hearing or due process of Alison Teal, the Party’s duly selected Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Sheffield Central (a much respected local Green Party councillor of 6 years standing who led the campaign against mass tree-felling in Sheffield), and her last minute replacement as candidate without due process of de-selection as required by the Party Constitution, which led her to resign from the Party and stand as an independent;
• the repeated suspensions and attempted expulsions of Emma Bateman, an elected co-chair of Green Party Women (expelled three times and reinstated twice on appeal so far, with a further appeal still pending); and the serial suspensions and expulsions of successive other elected co-chairs of Green Party Women (GPW), Dawn Furness, Zoe Hatch, and Jude English;
• the suspension of the co-chairs of Green Party Seniors, Nicola Watson and Freda Davis (the latter herself a former long-standing member and co-chair of GPRC), and of Green Party Seniors membership secretary Eric Walker (all of which occurred on the day of the Green Party Seniors AGM, thus preventing them standing for re-election to their positions);
• the “no fault” suspensions (NFS) of elected SOC member Sarah Bingham without subsequent due process (since reinstated but prevented from carrying out her SOC role for months, and unable to stand or campaign in the General Election); of Lucy Watson, previous member of GPW Committee, for debating issues regarding safeguarding on internal Green Spaces; of Imogen Makepeace, for querying procedure within Disciplinary Committee of which she was an elected member (subsequently resigned); and of Darren Johnson, previous Principal Spokesperson and London Assembly member, for allegedly “Engaging in a pattern of behaviour which is likely to bring the Party into disrepute”;
• the successive suspensions and expulsion of Robbie Spence, who was reinstated after a No Fault Suspension lasting 26 months was set aside, was elected to Policy Development Committee and then placed on a further NFS, which has since also been lifted, but is now expelled by GPRC without a hearing and is awaiting an appeal;
• the expulsion of Peter Garbutt and Rachel Hardy for allegedly supporting Alison Teal, once again without due process; together with Sara Mai, Sue Williams, (GPW Secretary 2023 & 2024), and several others, all for allegedly supporting Alison Teal, who was the properly selected candidate, and all of whom were expelled and forfeited membership for 5 years;
• the expulsion of Nathan Williams, for writing a journalism piece reporting some of the above facts;
• the summary expulsions (without investigation or hearing) of Mandy Vere and Hazel Pegg for co-hosting a Green Women’s Declaration webinar, which the complainant assumed meant they were on an Executive, for which both were expelled and forfeited membership for 5 years;
• the summary expulsion of Amanda Stones, a further Green Party Women committee member, for reasons as yet unclear;
• as well as numerous other expulsions, suspensions and so-called “no fault suspensions” amounting to a widespread process of bullying and intimidation. No fault suspensions, which are a temporary measure for use only in exceptional circumstances, have been routinely misused to impose suspensions as an effective punishment with no investigation or hearing, and have not been periodically reviewed as required by the disciplinary rules. The total number of such expulsions and suspensions is unknown due to the secrecy which surrounds disciplinary matters within the Party on purported grounds of “confidentiality”, and the fact that neither GPRC nor Disciplinary Committee have published minutes of their meetings during the past year.
• Conference notes that this campaign is without precedent in the Party’s over 50-year history, has involved frequent and systematic breaches of the Party’s Constitution, rules and established practices and a complete disregard of the norms of natural justice, and that GPRC has now unilaterally and in breach of the Party Constitution usurped the role of Disciplinary Committee in the disciplinary process altogether. It has been conducted by GPRC, without regard to legal advice which it viewed as “unhelpful” and has not shared with other governance bodies, but with the active collusion of members of SOC (two of whom are currently also members of GPRC) and of Disciplinary Committee (which has itself been non-functional for several months and has excluded some of its elected members from taking any part in its deliberations). We note that the judgement in the Shahrar Ali case has resulted in the Party having to pay damages of £9,100 plus a further amount of costs still to be determined at a hearing in September, and that the on-going campaign by GPRC has opened the Party to further legal action likely to result in similar legal consequences.

This Conference therefore concludes that a majority of the present membership of GPRC have acted in ways which are both contrary to the Constitution of the Green Party and potentially unlawful in view of the Shahrar Ali’s case and other recent legal precedents, and therefore, being the only body within the Party capable of doing so, instructs all the present members of GPRC to stand down forthwith so that fresh elections may be held for those positions.

This Conference also instructs the Party that all suspended and expelled former members listed above and any others subject to decisions made while under the current co-chairship of GPRC, except those (if any) who experienced disciplinary action because they were convicted of a criminal offence, have their bans on re-joining the party revoked and their memberships reinstated immediately via a general amnesty, and that all no fault suspensions currently in force shall be set aside pending full due process of investigations and hearings. We also call for an investigation by an outside body into the frequently expressed charges by members of dysfunction, corruption and discrimination of the complaints and disciplinary system.

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