MPs should 'job share' says Green Party MP

MPs should be allowed to "job share", Green Party leader Caroline Lucas said today.

Brighton Pavilion MP Ms Lucas is to propose that pairs of candidates be allowed to stand for election and then share the job if elected, when she addresses her party's autumn conference in Birmingham later today.

She said the plan would allow MPs to retain stronger ties with their constituencies and could result in more women at Westminster.

"This is actually incredibly sensible," Ms Lucas told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"How many times have people talked about career politicians, about politicians being out of touch with reality.

"If you had job-sharing MPs what that would allow you do is to keep MPs with a foot in their community, they could keep their caring responsibilities, they could keep voluntary work, they could continue part-time in their profession.

"It would enable far more women to get into politics."

Ms Lucas said it was just the latest example of the Green Party being at the "cutting edge of new ideas".

The conference will be the party's first with an MP after Ms Lucas secured election in May.

And she said the Coalition presented the party with a chance to attract supporters.

"There is a real opportunity for the Green Party out there," Ms Lucas said.

"The context is grim, with the kinds of draconian cuts that the coalition Government are pushing through, but that does mean that anybody who had one scintilla of thought that the Lib Dems might be the party of fairness have now had that illusion completely shattered.

"And I think what we see now is a sense that there is a voice that is needed in politics that is standing up for genuine fairness."