page_title: History of the Green Party of England and Wales
section_title: 1997 to 2009
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Green Party of England and Wales / 1997 to 2009
caption_attribution_description: Caroline Lucas keynote speech at the autumn conference of the Green Party of England and Wales with Councillor Rupert Read looking on, Hove, 2006-09-23
context_page_description: The Green Party of England and Wales has its roots in the PEOPLE Party started in Coventry in 1972/3 by four professional friends. It then changed its name to the more descriptive Ecology Party in 1975, and to the Green Party ten years later. In the 1990s, the Scottish and Northern Ireland wings of the Green Party in the United Kingdom decided to separate amicably from the party in England and Wales, to form the Scottish Green Party and the Green Party in Northern Ireland. The Wales Green Party became an autonomous regional party and remained within the new Green Party of England and Wales.
context_section_description: The election of a Labour government in 1997 created opportunities and focus for the Green Party. New democratic institutions were created that offered electoral possibilities for the Greens, such as the London Assembly, the National Assembly for Wales and – for the independent Scottish Green Party – the Scottish Parliament, all of which use some form of proportional representation, allowing smaller parties the chance of gaining representation. Labour also changed European Parliamentary elections to a form of proportional representation.
  Combined with gradual council gains, the party quietly gained successes.
  In the 1999 European elections, two Greens were elected Members of the European Parliament (MEPs): Caroline Lucas (South East England) and Jean Lambert (London). They retained their seats in the 2004 European elections, despite a reduction in number of seats available. Overall, the Party gained 1,033,093 votes in the 2004 European election.
  However the Greens did not manage to break through into other European electoral regions or the Welsh Assembly.
  Three Greens were elected to the first London Assembly.
  The Green Party achieved its best ever UK General Election result to date in the 2005 General Election with a total of 281,780 votes, with Keith Taylor receiving 22% of the vote in Brighton Pavilion.
  The Party had 116 local councillors after a gain of 5 councillors during the 2008 local elections. The Greens achieved significant representation on Brighton & Hove City Council, Lancaster City Council, Norwich, Lewisham, Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council, Kirklees Council and Stroud District Council. The Green Party were the official opposition on Norwich City Council; they formed part of the ruling coalition that controlled Lancaster City Council alongside the Liberal Democrats and Labour, and shared control of Castle Morpeth Council as part of an all party administration.
  In this period, the Green Party of England and Wales had representation in the House of Lords, the (unelected) upper chamber of Parliament: in the person of  Lord Beaumont of Whitley, who died in 2008.
  According to MORI in 2010, Green issues were rated as importantly as during the Green Party's previous high point in the late 1980s.
  The party held its first ever leadership election in September 2008: Caroline Lucas was elected to the position of Leader, and Adrian Ramsay to the position of Deputy Leader.
caption: Caroline Lucas giving a keynote speech at the autumn conference of the Green Party of England and Wales, Hove, 2006
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