VOTING for the Green Party leadership begins tomorrow, with the frontrunners split over forming an alliance with Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana's planned new political party.

Former Green MP Caroline Lucas said today that it would be a “huge advantage” for the party to back Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns’s leadership bid, since both are MPs.

“It reminds voters that the Green Party is a serious political party winning power at every level, as well as being part of the wider environmental and social justice movement,” Ms Lucas said.

“It takes an unusual combination of qualities to lead a political party effectively. Honesty and integrity are crucial, and so is the ability to think strategically beyond the next day’s headlines.”

Mr Ramsay and Ms Chowns — whose main constituency rivals are the Tories — have both warned against the Greens becoming “a Jeremy Corbyn support act.”

In contrast, rival candidate and Greens deputy leader Zack Polanski has said that he may be willing to co-operate with a new Corbyn-Sultana party after calls for the two groups to form an alliance.

His push for the leadership is built around the idea of making the party a mass-membership “eco-populist” organisation.

Today, Ms Chowns stressed connecting “with a wide range of voters” and that polling by YouGov has shown that “people who voted for all the other parties in 2024 are much more likely to consider voting Green next time than for a Corbyn-led party.”

Mr Ramsay argued that the erosion of two-party politics means the Greens can continue their electoral strategy of “successfully building trust and sustained support in communities all across the country.”