Motion #03
The Green Party Executive is responsible for the overall and day-to-day direction of the Party. The
two guiding principles are to ensure the delivery of the Political Strategy agreed by members through Party Conference and to manage risks which have the potential to prevent us from achieving the goals set out in the democratically agreed strategy.
Responsibilities include ensuring the proper oversight of raising and expenditure of funds; acting as
the Green Party’s employer of staff; implementing the decisions of the Annual Conference; and being liable for the governance and smooth functioning of the organisation.
The Executive fulfils many of its responsibilities through the staff team, led by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Executive members are expected to be ready and able – and are encouraged to – challenge and test proposals and plans put forward by the CEO, and to provide independent oversight and scrutiny of the party’s operations.
In addition to their collective governance responsibilities, Executive members also have role-specific responsibilities – often related to either a sub-committee of the Executive or a committee elected by conference. These committees allow for more detailed oversight of key issues between meetings, and report regularly to meetings of the Executive. These committees each have their own reports to the AGM, so this report focuses on the overall governance responsibilities of the Executive.
At the first meeting of this term of office, the Executive elected Rosie Rawle (Local Party Support Co- ordinator) and Matthew Hull (Trade Union Liaison Co-ordinator) as a job-share for the role of deputy Chair. In January, Kate Souper was co-opted to as Management Co-ordinator to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Stacy Smith.
Priority One: Get Greens Elected – The biggest event of the year was of course the General Election; it came at a somewhat unexpected time but we had been preparing for it for a number of years and target campaign teams and national staff were able to switch quickly into short campaign mode. We were only one signature away from a complete full slate across England and Wales and achieved by far our highest vote (well over 1.8 million), with 40 second places (many of them with 20%+ vote share), and the majority of deposits saved. The icing on the cake was winning all 4 of our national target seats (we have previously never had more than a single MP).
We also made significant net gains in the round of local elections, taking us to over 800 councillors across England and Wales, we are currently in part of the administration in 39 councils, and we are the largest party in 12 of those. We also achieved best ever results in Combined-Authority Mayoral and Police and Crime Commissioner elections.
The Executive would like to extend our thanks the target constituency campaign teams, Chris Williams, Andi Mohr and the rest of the central staff, members of Green Party Regional Council, all those who stood as candidates, and to members across the country for their roles in our most successful election year ever.
Preparations are well underway for the County Council elections in 2025 and the Senedd Cymru elections in 2026.
Priority Two: Build Credibility – We tripled our national vote share from 2.3% in 2019 to 7.2%
The external communication function of the party has improved beyond all recognition in recent years and there is no question that this has been instrumental in our achieving our political objectives. The team is still heavily under-resourced, with only two press officers, but these and other seconded staff performed brilliantly during the general election campaign, putting us on an equal footing with the other parties and their teams of hundreds of media staff. We hope that part of investment for the future will include additional staff for the national party comms function, liaising with additional media staff working for MPs and for the Party in parliament. This will be essential for the party to maintain its position as a professional political party, and to move forward to the next stage of our political strategy.
Priority Three: Build Our Organisation – We have increased the membership to over 58,000 (a more than 50% increase since 2019). A combination of increased membership, the new membership rates agreed by conference in autumn 2023 and additional major donor fundraising means that we have grown unrestricted income by £1 million (+40%) since 2019, with an additional £850,000 raised during the 6 weeks of the General Election campaign.
Priority Four: Build A Movement – This has all been achieved by a shared focus on what increased electoral impact by the Green Party would do for delivering the policies and aims of the party. That as the political wing of the environmental movement our impact would come through having more elected Greens in places of power and influence.
The Executive are grateful to the whole membership who worked to achieve these results – campaigning in target constituencies, standing as non-targets, phone banking, donating and supporting in many other ways. We also want to express out gratitude to our dedicated staff team who support and facilitate the activity of members, activists, candidates, and elected Greens at all levels.
Reviewing the Campaign: we have a huge amount to learn and record from the 2024 General Election campaign so we can get our next campaign on the firmest footing from the beginning. Activities will be taking place across the party to capture what went well and where we need to improve in future.
Revising the Political Strategy: the existing Political Strategy needs updating in the light of our unprecedented success in the last election.
Improving Inclusion and Representativeness: Ensure that, at all levels, the Party reflects and represents the communities we serve, and deliver the culture and structural change required to make this happen.
A Parliamentary Green Party: having a group of MPs in the Commons is a new venture for the party and will require change to our ways of operating.
Improving the member experience for all: as we have grown as Party we want to use this opportunity to improve the member experience and engagement across all members.
Julian Cusack, Finance Co-ordinator (from September 2023) and Registered Treasurer (from May 2024)
Treasurers Report
2023 accounts
Our Report and Accounts for 2023 are on public record with the Electoral Commission and can be found by following this link https://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/Api/Accounts/Documents/26173
They show a deficit for the year of £99,665 on our General Fund where we account for unrestricted income and expenditure and this took the accumulated deficit on the General Fund to £520,484.
After deducting a positive balance of £400,023 on other restricted use funds, the Balance Sheet recorded net liabilities of £120,461 as at 31 December 2023.
Cash balances totalled £609k at the end of the year, although it should be noted that capitation payments due to local parties were £636k as at 31 December 2023 (2022 £464k).
Increases to our spending on management and administration have been driven by a small number of members challenging the Party’s processes via Court. This is a continuing concern and the uncertainty that it creates is discussed in the following terms in the notes to our published accounts:
“At the end of 2022 the Party was in the process of responding to three legal claims made against it during that year. One of these claims has been settled and full provision for the outcome has been made in the balance sheet as at 31st December 2023.
One additional claim has been made during 2023.
The Party has sought and continues to seek legal advice from its solicitors with regards to each of the outstanding cases. No dates have been set for Court hearings of any further claims.
It is possible that there will be future payments in the defence and settlement of one or more of these cases.
The Party’s best estimate of these possible future payments is £280,000, before accounting for any recoveries of legal costs from the claimants.”
Based on this disclosure and our cash flow forecasts we were able to satisfy our auditors that they could issue an unqualified audit opinion but I remain committed to working with GPEx and GPRC to reduce our contingent exposures to legal expenses.
2024 finance update
For 2024 we set a budget for our General Fund which projected a deficit of £140,000 on income of £3.3m which included a cautious estimate of the additional income arising from the increase in membership subscriptions agreed by conference in 2023.
At the half year stage our management accounts were showing some welcome improvement with a surplus for the six months. Income and expenditure in the second half of the current year includes significant increases due to funds raised and spent on the General Election. We are currently working on a revised forecast for 2024 and budgets for 2025 and 2026 with a view to moving the Party to a position where it can operate at a surplus and begin to rebuild its financial resources. I regret that there is likely to be continuing delay in the payment of capitations to local parties while this process continues.
I note that Conference voted to restore the default position that we would usually hold a conference each Spring. This is just one of many pressures on the budget for future years which GPEx will need to take into consideration.
Electoral Commission compliance
I would like to put on record my thanks to our staff team and to all the volunteer Treasurers who continue to enable us to meet our reporting requirements for donations, election expenses and VAT. I would also like to thank my predecessor as registered Treasurer, John Nott, for a patient and thorough hand-over to me when I took on the role.
I cannot stress enough how important it is that donations and campaign expenditure are authorised, recorded, and reported in compliance with electoral law, and we are constantly looking to improve the systems and training that exist to support volunteer Treasurers and Election Agents.
Please note that any Local Party with income or expenditure more than £25,000 for calendar year 2024 must submit accounts to the Electoral Commission. The finance team can assist you to meet this requirement if it applies.
Administration & Finance Committee (AFCom) report
AFCom comprises four members of the Executive and one representative of the Regional Council. It meets monthly to consider matters relating to fund-raising, finance, people and culture, digital strategy and governance in more detail than is possible at GPEx. AfCom also now considers the matters previously discussed at the Development Committee which has been discontinued.
Donation Scrutiny Committee report
Donation Scrutiny Committee comprises two members of the Executive and one representative of the Regional Council. Its function is to consider whether donations to the Party are a) legally permissible (i.e. from a donor who is on the electoral roll or a company resident in the UK), b) ethically acceptable (i.e. from a source that is in line with the Party’s values), and c) have no strings attached (we do not accept donations which would require, e.g. a change in policy or privileged access to elected Greens).
The Committee normally conducts its business by way of online polls.
Conclusion
I wish to record my sincere thanks to the Head of Finance and her team for all their hard work throughout the year and in particular for meeting the exceptional demands of the general election campaign on the team.
Last updated on 2024-11-02 at 12:44