49 Facts About Caroline Lucas

Caroline Lucas was Member of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion from 2010 to 2024.

Caroline Lucas was the Green Party's first MP and their only MP until the 2024 general election.

Caroline Lucas joined the Green Party in 1986 and held various party roles, serving on Oxfordshire County Council from 1993 to 1997.

Caroline Lucas was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for South East England in 1999 and re-elected in 2004 and 2009, serving as the party's female Principal Speaker from 2003 to 2006 and from 2007 to 2008.

Caroline Lucas was elected the first leader of the Green Party in 2008 and was selected to represent the constituency of Brighton Pavilion in the 2010 general election, becoming the party's first MP.

Caroline Lucas stood down as party leader in 2012 to devote more time to her parliamentary duties and focus on the election campaign.

Caroline Lucas returned as party leader from September 2016 to September 2018, sharing the post with Jonathan Bartley.

Caroline Lucas stated in June 2023 that she would not stand at the 2024 general election.

Caroline Lucas was born in Malvern in Worcestershire, to middle-class, Conservative Party-voting parents, Peter and Valerie Caroline Lucas.

Caroline Lucas is one of three children; her father ran a small central heating company, and sold solar panelling.

Caroline Lucas's mother stayed at home to bring up their children.

Caroline Lucas was educated at Malvern Girls' College, a boarding private school in Great Malvern.

Caroline Lucas then went to the University of Exeter, where she gained a first-class BA in English Literature in 1983.

Caroline Lucas was an activist in CND and was involved in the Snowball Campaign against US military bases in the UK, which involved cutting fences with the expectation of being arrested.

Caroline Lucas won a scholarship to attend the University of Kansas between 1983 and 1984, gaining a Diploma of Journalism, before studying for a PhD degree in English from the University of Exeter, awarded in 1990, with a thesis entitled Writing for Women: a study of woman as reader in Elizabethan romance.

Caroline Lucas served as their General Election Speaker from 1991 and a Regional Council Member from 1997.

Caroline Lucas was first elected as a Member of the European Parliament for the South East England Region at the 1999 elections, the first year the election was by proportional representation.

Caroline Lucas argued that she had a right under the Human Rights Act to peaceful protest following on from her firm anti-nuclear attitudes.

Caroline Lucas was arrested for a protest at the same location in January 2007.

Caroline Lucas held the party's post of Female Principal Speaker from 2003 to 2006 and from 2007 to 2008.

On 14 May 2012, Caroline Lucas announced she would be standing down as leader as of September 2012.

In 2007, Caroline Lucas declared her intention to stand for the Green Party's nomination for the prospective parliamentary candidate in the Brighton Pavilion constituency for the next general election.

On 18 July 2007, it was announced that Caroline Lucas had been selected by the Brighton Green Party.

In May 2010, Caroline Lucas was elected as the first soley-Green MP to Westminster with a majority of 1,252.

Caroline Lucas was the first woman to be elected as an MP for Brighton.

Caroline Lucas delivered her maiden speech on 27 May 2010.

Caroline Lucas opposed the presentation of bare-breasted models on page 3 in The Sun and in 2013 was reprimanded for transgressing the Westminster dress code by wearing a T-shirt with the logo "No More Page Three" to protest against the feature during a Commons debate.

On 19 August 2013, Caroline Lucas was arrested at a non-violent protest against Cuadrilla Resources fracking operations in Sussex.

Caroline Lucas was charged with obstructing a public highway but was found not guilty on 17 April 2014 at Brighton Magistrates' Court.

On 8 June 2023, Caroline Lucas announced she would not be standing at the 2024 general election.

On 31 May 2016, it was announced that Caroline Lucas would run for the position of the Leader of the Green Party in a job share arrangement with the welfare spokesman Jonathan Bartley in the forthcoming 2016 Green Party leadership election.

Caroline Lucas said the party would strive to preserve the rights of EU nationals living in Britain, and EU rules on workers' rights and the environment, among other policies.

In May 2018, Caroline Lucas announced that at the end of her two-year term in September, she would not seek re-election as co-leader of the Green Party.

Caroline Lucas is vice-president of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and has been on the National Council of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament since 2004.

Caroline Lucas is Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil and Gas.

Caroline Lucas has called for the law to have an evidence-based approach to drugs that treats drug abuse as a health matter, rather than a criminal one.

In early 2013, Caroline Lucas co-signed a letter that was published in The Guardian newspaper and officially marked her support for the People's Assembly Against Austerity movement.

Caroline Lucas gave a speech at the People's Assembly Conference, held at Westminster Central Hall on 22 June 2013.

Caroline Lucas is a supporter of a permanent universal basic income.

In January 2016, Caroline Lucas tabled a motion in the British Parliament, calling on the Government to commission research into the effects of a universal basic income and examine its feasibility to replace the UK's existing social security system.

Caroline Lucas said she did not believe she had done anything wrong.

Caroline Lucas acknowledged that she had breached the rules and promised not to repeat the breach; the Green Party returned the donation to the supporter who received the tour.

In 2021, Caroline Lucas was one of three MPs who successfully took legal action against the Department of Health and Social Care over contracts awarded during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, Caroline Lucas criticised the HS2 high-speed project, saying it was a "vanity project" and that the construction of the high-speed rail project would emit more carbon than could be saved over decades.

Caroline Lucas is a prolific writer of reports, articles and books on the subjects of trade justice, localisation, globalisation, animal welfare, and food, in which she criticises free trade, a single European currency, trade-led development policies, genetically modified food, and a lack of attention to environmental and social issues.

Caroline Lucas has won the award for Politician of the Year in The Observer Newspaper Ethical Awards three times.

In October 2008, Caroline Lucas was winner in the Trade category of The Parliament magazine MEP Awards 2008.

Caroline Lucas is a vegetarian; she told ITV News political correspondent Paul Brand in September 2019 that she is "moving as fast as she can towards being vegan".

In 2016, a short documentary film about Caroline Lucas, One Green Seat, directed by Daniel Ifans and produced by We Are Tilt, was an Official Selection at the 2017 Artemis Women In Action Film Festival in Santa Monica, California.