My first week as Green Party leader

Also this week: the antidote to cynicism and listening to Clacton.

The first visit I made after being elected leader of the Green Party wasn’t to Westminster or City Hall. It was to a small, crowded union office, to meet members of the United Voices of the World trade union. Migrant cleaners and porters from St Helier Hospital, south London, had gathered to tell me about their pay, hours and working conditions.

One man told me about the mass inequality that is rife in his workplace. He told me that the employer contribution rate on NHS pensions is 23 per cent, but for these largely migrant workers, it’s the legal minimum of 3 per cent. These workers are employed directly by the trust, yet they are not given the same contracts as the rest of the NHS staff.

It was a bracing reminder that politics isn’t about spreadsheets, it’s about people’s lives. The Green Party has always stood shoulder to shoulder with exploited workers and the unions that support them. If our politics isn’t rooted in solidarity with them, then what’s the point?

Inspired by youth

Later on election day, I spent my time with two young people who reminded me why I do this job. I was going door-knocking in Hackney with Zoë Garbett, who is running to be Hackney’s first Green mayor in May 2026.

The first young person was Dylan Law, who is standing to be Zoë’s deputy. Dylan, 19, has grown up watching front-line services unravel: youth clubs closed, libraries shut, the cost of housing spiralling. For him, politics isn’t abstract. It’s the difference between having somewhere to meet or being left to fend for yourself. Listening to Dylan, I was struck by his mix of anger and determination. He doesn’t want sympathy. He wants change, and it’s incredible to see how much he’s willing to give to deliver it.

The second young person was Caspar, a social media expert who is, frankly, far more talented than I was at his age. He’s part of a generation that gets sneered at for being “too online”, but his ability to cut through the noise and speak in ways that reach people is exactly what British politics needs.

Spending the day with Dylan and Caspar was the antidote to the cynicism we’re so often fed. If our politics has a future, it looks like them: passionate, creative, rooted in community and impatient for change.

Beating the millionaire backers

A few days later, I was in Clacton – where else? It’s easy for commentators in London to caricature places like Clacton, to write them off as Nigel Farage country. But I didn’t go there to sneer. I went to listen.

People told me they were sick of being ignored. They were angry at rising bills, boarded-up high streets, and politicians who seemed to have time for everyone except them. That anger is real, and if the only people speaking to it are Farage and his millionaire backers, then the hard right will keep growing. I am determined that they must have a credible political alternative.

What struck me most, though, was that when I explained our ideas – a wealth tax on the super-rich, public ownership of water, free childcare – people started to nod along. They didn’t dismiss it. They didn’t say it was unrealistic. They could see how this would impact them and their communities.

The truth is, the Greens are the only party with the courage to confront the root causes of this anger, rather than exploit it. We don’t write off towns like Clacton. We show up, listen and fight for them.

Setting sail for the Senedd

Later that week, I headed to Cardiff, because if there’s one thing I want to make clear from day one as leader, it’s this: winning seats in the Senedd in 2026 is our number one priority. Why? Because the Senedd elections will be the first fully proportional vote ever held on the UK mainland.

Last year in Cardiff South and Penarth, the Greens finished second at Westminster: this constituency makes up half of the new Caerdydd Penarth Senedd seat. We can elect our first Green member of the Senedd. Anthony Slaughter, our Welsh leader, will top the list there. It’s not just about getting a seat – it’s about showing there is an alternative to a stale Labour government on one side and the dangerous rise of Reform on the other.

If we succeed in Cardiff, it won’t just be a Welsh story. It will be proof that there is space, and appetite, for a Green politics of hope across the UK. And that’s what keeps me going. From the union offices to the beaches of Clacton, from Hackney town halls to the Senedd chamber, we can turn anger into hope and build a country where no one is left behind.