Caroline Lucas

Caroline Patricia Lucas (born 9 December 1960) is a British politician, and since 2 September 2016, Co-Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, a position she shares with Jonathan Bartley. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brighton Pavilion since the 2010 general election, when she became the Green Party's first MP. She was re-elected in the 2015 and 2017 general elections with an increased majority. Born in Malvern in Worcestershire, Lucas graduated from the University of Exeter and the University of Kansas before receiving a PhD from the University of Exeter in 1989. She joined the Green Party in 1986 and held various party roles, also serving on Oxfordshire County Council from 1993 to 1997. She was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England in 1999 and re-elected in 2004 and 2009, also serving as the Party's Female Principal Speaker from 2003 to 2006 and from 2007 to 2008. Lucas was elected the first Leader of the Green Party in 2008 and was elected to represent the constituency of Brighton Pavilion in the 2010 general election. She stood down as party leader in 2012 to devote more time to her parliamentary duties and focus on an ultimately successful campaign to be re-elected as an MP. She returned to a party leadership role in September 2016, when she was elected as Co-Leader as part of a job-sharing arrangement with Jonathan Bartley. She is known as a campaigner and writer on green economics, localisation, alternatives to globalisation, trade justice, animal welfare and food. In her time as a politician and activist, she has worked with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and think-tanks, including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and Oxfam. 2Early life and education Lucas was born in Malvern in Worcestershire, to middle-class, Conservative parents Peter and Valerie Luca