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A prominent Green Party activist and former councillor in Green co-leader Carla Denyer’s target seat has been expelled by the party, after appearing to back an independent candidate who was suspended over alleged transphobia. And she is now threatening to take the Green co-leader and candidate to court.
Jude English, who represented Ashley ward inside the Bristol Central seat since 2016, was suspended from the party on March 6th this year, after a complaint branded the ‘gender critical’ activist an “urgent and significant risk of bringing the Party into disrepute”. Several polls tip Green co-leader Carla Denyer in position to take the seat from Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire on July 4th.
Jude English’s suspension followed an appearance at a Green Women’s Declaration (GWD) webinar on the party’s approach to trans and sex-based rights. She missed out on being re-elected in May, as selections ran during her suspension.
Transphobia Allegations
The complaint alleged that Green Women’s Declaration is a “transphobic organisation”, and argued that English “used her position in Bristol’s Green Councillor group to water down a July 2022 motion to Council on trans rights”. English claims there is no whipping of Green Party councillors and she chose to abstain on a trans rights motion.
The complaint also dubbed GWD’s backing for “sex-based rights” a “transphobic
dog whistle.” “Language about defending sex-based rights is specifically used to “argue against rights for transgender individuals,” the complainants alleged.
Other points claimed that references to protecting single-sex spaces are “used to exclude trans people from these spaces,” which “qualifies as queerphobia under GPEW’s queerphobia guidance…It is discrimination against transwomen on the basis of both gender identity and gender expression.”
GWD also refers to transwomen as “males”, which the complainants state was “knowingly using a label for a person that doesn’t describe their identity.”
The Green Party’s suspension decision in March adds: “If the Party is not seen to be taking action against the open transphobia displayed by Jude [English] then it risks a hugely damaging scandal erupting after it’s too late to take action. Bristol is a tight Labour/Green fight for control of the Council, meaning Administration could come down to a difference of one Councillor.” (The Greens subsequently became the largest party on the council for the first time in May).
“Jude’s actions risk costing votes in wards such as her own which have tight Labour/Green splits. Furthermore, any reputational damage will impact Carla Denyer’s campaign in Bristol Central,” the decision from the party’s regional council added.
The Green Party’s Responsibilities and Rights policy (RR530) states: “The Green Party recognises that trans men are men, trans women are women, and that non-binary identities exist and are valid.”
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Several former co-chairs of Green Party Women have been suspended or expelled from the party over disagreements with how that policy is implemented. Some, for instance, want people designated male at birth to be barred from women-only prisons or refuges, including if they have had gender reassignment surgery or have a Gender Recognition Certificate.
In November 2022, Sheffield Central Green Party candidate Alison Teal was suspended from the Green Party after tweeting an article challenging Eddie Izzard’s gender identity. She subsequently missed out on selection for this General Election, as she remained suspended. She is now running as an independent candidate and is understood to have been expelled as a result.
The quote Teal shared stated: “The loss of women’s rights starts with looking the other way for an Eddie Izzard and ends with a society that doesn’t flinch at placing a male sex offender in jail with women”. It came from an article from The Critic based on opposition to the trans comic using a women’s toilet, including photographs of Izzard entering a women’s bathroom.
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Legal Liability
While Labour has largely quelled its rows over gender and sex, the issue appears to be becoming more polarised in the Green Party. In February, a court ruled in favour of former deputy leader Shahrar Ali, after he alleged he had been victimised by the party for his gender critical beliefs – including being sacked from his spokesperson role.
Jude English told Byline Times she is planning to launch legal action – naming Carla Denyer as one of the key people liable. As the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) is technically an “unincorporated organisation” (i.e. not registered as a corporate entity, charity, or co-op etc.) legally, English cannot take the party to court as a whole. Instead, she must name individuals who act as proxies for the entity.
As leader, Carla Denyer sits on the Green Party Executive and has legal responsibilities as one of its members. “This is a threat to the organisation,” English said, adding: “I am calling Carla to court,” alongside several other prominent activists.
As noted by the House of Commons library, a series of employment tribunal rulings since 2021 have considered whether and to what extent gender-critical beliefs count as “philosophical beliefs”. Philosophical beliefs are protected from discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.
They have found that gender-critical beliefs – for instance that people cannot physically change their biological sex – can be protected from discrimination under the Equality Act 2010. However, “the ways in which such beliefs manifest themselves in behaviour might not be protected.”
“It depends on what those behaviours are and how they impact on the legal rights of others not t