Green Party opens voting for leadership after Natalie Bennett stands down
Voting has begun in the Green Party's leadership election after Natalie Bennnett stood down in May.
Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas is favourite, standing on a joint ticket with Jonathan Bartley, the party's national work and pensions spokesperson.
Read more: Natalie Bennett to stand down as leader of the Green Party after four years
Simon Cross, Clive Lord, David Malone, Martie Warin and David Williams make up the rest of the pack.
A new deputy leader will also be elected and all paying members are able to vote. The outcome is expected during the autumn conference.
The contest was sparking in May when Bennett stepped down from the helm of the party after four years in charge.
Read more: Natalie Bennett's car crash interview on LBC
“I started with a number of intentions: making the Green party a truly national party; growing the membership; growing the strength of our local parties and getting us into national debates,” Bennett said at the time.
Caroline Lucas, the Green’s sole MP, is the frontrunner to succeed Bennett. Lucas was the leader of the party between 2008 and 2012, before she stood down to focus on her parliamentary activities.
Bennett rose to national prominence following the seven-way television debates ahead of the 2015 general election. After the spike in publicity, she took the party to win their highest ever share of the popular vote – at 3.8 per cent – with more than one million votes cast for Green Party candidates.