Spring 2026 Conference
Motion E19 : End political capture of the EHRC and create a truly independent Equality and Human Rights Authority
Proposed by : Tegan Russell-Thompson, Kieran Collins, Melissa Harker, Emma Wolfe, Athena Blight, Sage Ralph, Melody Robinson, Sidney Middleditch, Ashley Trigg, Tobias MacDonald, Amber Lewis, Thea Down, Andrew Godfrey-Collins, Isaac Leesley, Matthew Axbey, Lyra Dick, Guillaume Didier, Maddie Skelland, James Booth, Amber McClatchey, Mariam Vilkaste, Josh Winn, Olivia Law-Zygadlo, Ryan Moloney, Alison Jones, Easter Gawel, Cassie Crofts, Ren Binden, Alison Potts, Michael Hall, Michael Robinson, Felicity De Motta, Jacob Woodward, Leonard Domingues, Joseph Gosling, Thomas Gray, Chris Childs
Synopsis
Political capture of the EHRC has undermined trust and produced exclusionary guidance, disporpertionately affecting transgender people with diverting attention from other marginalised and protected groups. This motion advocates for its replacement with a transparent, democratic authority that upholds universal, non-hierarchical human rights that is insulated from ministerial interference.
Selected item from the motion text highlighting the proposers’ real purpose of their motion:
7. Call for the rejection of any “competing rights” framework that results in the segregation of exclusion of minority groups, and instead require universal, non-discriminatory solutions.
Had this motion made it on to the Conference floor and been approved, it would in effect have put the Green Party on a collision course with the Supreme Court’s interpretation of ‘sex’ under the Equality Act of 2010. Green MPs Carla Denyer and Leader Zack Polanski are on the record to call for new legislation to overtun the Court ruling.
To the vast majority of members who have joined the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) since September 2025, the process of Party policy-making may not be top of their priorities at this point in time in the elections cycle. Engaging in the protracted business of submitting motions for GPEW’s conferences does indeed require an unusually high level of commitment, digital skills, networking, perseverence and… grit.
Since one of the GPEW’s historical legacy is that Conference participants are self-appointed and accountable to no-one, it is of paramount importance that, through their allocated Local Parties, new members are made aware of motions likely to become Party policy and encouraged to take part, if only online and for the Plenary sessions where all registered members can vote.
The proposers’ identities to motions must also be of interest to Local and Regional Party Officers. This is because members who are inactive in their Local or Regional Parties may in fact be very active within their private facebook, what’s app’ or one of the 7 Common Interest groups sites.
Unlike other progressive Parties and organisations, motions within the GPEW are never submitted by ‘branches’ or Regions, although the Constitution does allow them to do so. They always seem to come from individual members who must de facto belong to some network as they must find 11 co-proposers. Established Working Groups – 37 of them which anyone can join – are tasked to submit policy reviews and accredited motions whilst the Executive or the new Council are entitled to submit a limited number of organisational motions.
Whilst it is impossible at this stage to put a number as to the proportion of highly motivated new members who may eventually engage with the Conference process, the evidence since the surge in membership is that less than 0.4 % of members have determined all new policies.
One would anticipate that such a sorry state of affair will be addressed by the Leadership Team, working with the Executive, the new Council and the Standing Orders Committee as a matter of some urgency.
It is hoped that this post from The Green Light may contribute to expose further the myth that the Green Party’s “one member, one vote” is the epitomy of democracy.
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