Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartley elected Green leaders

Natalie Bennett steps down from the top of the party after four years

Caroline Lucas has returned as the leader of the Green Party on a joint ticket with Jonathan Bartley, the party has announced at its annual conference.

It comes after Natalie Bennett, the Green leader since 2012, officially stood down from the role claiming not to be a “spin-trained, lifelong politician” but vowed to retain a prominent role in the party.

Around 86 per cent of members voted for Ms Lucas, the party’s only representative in Westminster and MP for Brighton Pavilion, and Mr Bartley, the Greens’ little-known welfare spokesperson. There were five other contenders in the leadership race.

Using her speech to address the fallout from the European Union referendum Ms Lucas said that Prime Minister’s mantra that ‘Brexit means Brexit’ is “nothing until we know what the terms of any Brexit deal will be”. She added that her party could not accept a deal “that doesn’t offer hope and security to both those who voted to Leave and those who voted to Remain”.

“That’s why our Party says, loudly and proudly, we the people should continue to have our say. And once the principles of any new deal have been set out, we want them put to a second referendum.”

Addressing the 1,200-strong audience Ms Lucas, the party’s only MP in Westminster for Brighton Pavilion, said the “since we last met as a Party, our country has been shaken by the bitterly fought EU referendum campaign and its political fallout”.

“Trust has been shattered and the truth lies buried. And at what point did it become OK to produce posters so dehumanising, so degrading and so despicable that they are compared to 1930s propaganda – even by a Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer?

“Our political class – so gravely out of touch that they are surprised when years of scapegoating migrants for our social and economic ills come home to roost.”

However, some activists in the party have considered the battle more of a coronation, rather than a contest. Writing for Open Democracy in June, Matt Townsend, a Green activist, said Ms Lucas’s decision to run had convinced other potential candidates not to run. He added: I am sure there will be some competition, but the general expectation is of a coronation rather than a real contest. Caroline is the Green Party’s only national household name politician. Unless something amazing happens, there is a risk the contest has already been killed off ,”

Registering his delight at winning the contest, Mr Bartley added: “We are incredibly proud to be the first leaders of a political party in this country to be job sharing. Demonstrating both the power of working together and the importance of striking a healthy balance between work and family and other commitments.

“We stand here, more united as Party with two leaders than others are with one. And to everyone who wants more than divisions and uncertainty, we say this: come and join the Green Party today.”

At the general election last year the the Green party received 1.1 million votes but the party failed to establish control in vital target seats in university towns such as Bristol West and Norwich South. The party also lost control of its only council in Brighton and many critics point to her car crash radio interview with LBC for halting the party’s “Green Surge” during the election campaign.

In an interview with The Independent on Friday Ms Bennett, who was born in Australia before moving to Britain in 1999, said it was “definitely a possibility” she will run again to be an MP at the next general election, as she officially stood down as leader of the party.

In one of her last interviews at the helm of the party, Ms Bennett said she had achieved what she had set out to do in 2012 – to grow the size of the party and increase its vote share. “I’m standing down as leader but I’m not going away. I’m still planning to keep doing full-time politics.”

“But in the Green party leadership is not a greasy poll where you scramble to the top and cling on, it’s a role that we can share around,” Ms Bennett said as she sat on the edge of a bench in Camley Street National Park – a location she had attempted to film a campaign video for her leadership bid in 2012 but cancelled due to the “noise of sirens, helicopters, trains and lorries made it impossible”.