Caroline Lucas is unlike any other politician. She will be a loss not just for Brighton, but the country

Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, has announced that she will not be standing again at the next general election. Caroline, a colleague and a friend, is unlike any other politician, and not just because she is, for now, the country’s only Green MP. 

For many people, regardless of their politics, this has come as a shock. She’d almost become part of the furniture in Westminster, in a positive way. Always there as a voice for the voiceless, invariably championing issues that no-one else would, and relentlessly raising questions affecting her dear constituents.

I’m lucky enough to have worked for Caroline in different roles. In Brussels when she was an MEP, on her historic first triumphant general election campaign in 2010 and on her subsequent re-election in 2015 which was a ringing endorsement of the mark she had already made. 

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She now enjoys a majority of over 50% in her constituency, and so, for the most part, the people of Brighton Pavilion will be sad to see her go. But it is clear that, with her looming absence in Westminster, she will also leave a gaping hole for many people across the country too. 

As the sole Green MP, Caroline has had to work differently. Her arrest and subsequent acquittal for a peaceful protest at a fracking site in 2013. She has never been complacent and brings people together for the sake of both the planet and those who inhabit it. 

She is able to do this effectively because, not only is she a first-rate, compassionate and compelling public speaker, but she is also able to mobilise people around her – harnessing campaigns outside of parliament and working with them to bring their work into Westminster to change policy and government thinking. It really is a special skill that I have yet to experience elsewhere. 

Caroline has had big wins, for sure, such as putting a Green New Deal on the political map in a way that addresses both poverty and the climate crisis. But also smaller (but still significant) wins like changing outdated, sexist rules on which parents’ names can be on marriage certificates.

Caroline hasn’t achieved all that she has alone, she’s got a fantastic and vibrant team of incredibly smart people around her. But I know first-hand just how hard she herself works; how selfless she is and how she inspires all those around her to do the same. This is what first motivated me to work for her in Brussels, when I ran her successful campaign on a Written Declaration (equivalent of Westminster’s Early Day Motions) on supermarkets’ abuse of buying power. 

We worked tirelessly to make sure that our campaign was going to attain the high number of signatories and pass. And it was during those long evenings in Strasbourg when she’d be voting or speaking that I got to know her a bit more. 

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Although Caroline can be quite shy, she also has a cracking sense of humour, usually in response to what’s being said – very quick and intelligent, as you might expect. In more recent times, she even came along to my hen do and I can attest that she was a lot of fun there too – getting involved in all of the party games that my sister had invented. Her tailoring skills in creating a wedding dress out of loo roll were truly a sight to behold!

Ultimately, I’m sure that whatever Caroline goes on to do next, she will bring with her elegance, collaboration and great determination, qualities so often absent from our political sphere today.  Whether to change Britain or perhaps the world for right now or for generations to come, it will be for the better. 

A big thank you from all of us Caroline, you’ve paved the way for a whole host of future Greens, and good luck for what will undoubtedly be a bright future.

Alex Phillips is head of public affairs at The Big Issue and a former green Party councillor and MEP.