Caroline Lucas calls for an all-woman cabinet to oust Corbyn. But she forgot to invite the Black women.

Caroline Lucas


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Green MP Caroline Lucas has proposed a “controversial” idea. To block a no-deal Brexit, she’s suggested that an “emergency cabinet” of women should run the country. But her ‘plan’ has major issues.

Green and white

Lucas sent a letter outlining her ideas for her ‘dream’ cabinet to ten female politicians. This included Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, and Labour’s Yvette Cooper and Emily Thornberry. She also included SNP’s Kirsty Blackman, independent Northern Irish MP Sylvia Hermon, Plaid Cymru’s Liz Saville Roberts, and Conservative Justine Greening. Lucas didn’t stop there, she also invited former Conservative MPs Anna Soubry (now Change UK), and Heidi Allen (once part of Change UK, now independent).

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People slammed Lucas’s proposal.

Most significantly, she didn’t include a single Black woman:

In short, her ideal cabinet is white, middle class, and doesn’t include any left-wing MPs:

Climate emergency

Given Lucas is a Green Party MP, it’s difficult to understand why she’d even consider negotiating with some of these MPs.

For example, as The Canary reported, Swinson’s website claimed she’s “campaigned tirelessly to save our environment”. But her voting record tells a different story. It shows she supported the badger cull, fracking, HS2, and voted to sell off public forests. Swinson also accepted donations totalling £14,000 from Mark Petterson, director of a company with several fracking licences.

Soubry’s voting record on environmental issues is dire; so too is Allen’s.

In fact, as people pointed out, Jeremy Corbyn and most Labour MPs offer the only consistent and proven chance to counter the critical issues of the current climate breakdown:

A kinder politics?

Later, Lucas seemed to backtrack slightly suggesting that she would back a Corbyn-led government:

She also said she’d “love” Diane Abbott on board. But this gesture seemed empty and hollow given she’d ignored all Black MPs in her original letter.

The fact remains, most women she suggested she would work with oppose Corbyn. Swinson refused any alliance and said Corbyn “cannot be trusted”. Cooper, meanwhile, supported a no-confidence vote in Corbyn.

Lucas also claimed these women are party leaders. Except that’s rubbish, because Greening isn’t a leader, and Thornberry and Cooper aren’t either.

As The Canary reported, Allen’s ‘poverty tour’ of foodbanks shows that she really doesn’t understand the impact of Conservative-led austerity. As education minister, Greening blamed parents for period poverty. Soubry, meanwhile, claimed austerity measures were “necessary”, even after leaving the Conservative Party. And the voting record of half of Lucas’s line up shows they failed to challenge harsh policies:

No, no, no

As others pointed out, Lucas’s suggestion splits the left even further:

Boris Johnson’s harsh, right-wing government is hurtling the UK towards no-deal Brexit. So we’ve never needed unity from the left to oppose this more than we do now. Yes, trying to stop no-deal is important. But Lucas’s ‘dream team’ isn’t the way. It’s racist, classist, dangerous, and she’s just lost all credibility and respect for suggesting it.

Featured image via Wikimedia – Gpew

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  • Show Comments

    3. by focusing on the lack of a Black woman this article also falls in the same trap of identity politics. The failure to include a Black woman is symptomatic but would it have been better to have included Pritti Patel? Come on don’t be so pathetic.

      And also what it is this nonsense word ‘classism’? I’m all in favour of waging the class war. Unfortunately instead of waging it against the rich they are waging it against us!

      The obvious problem with such a cabinet is that it is a cross class alliance. It is a female version of a national government and the last national government in 1931 was famous for its attacks on the working class. And yes, obviously it means a fairly obvious means of avoiding a Corbyn government. Instead of accepting those like Jo Swinson who don’t ‘trust’ Corbyn she should maybe ask why we should trust ‘Swinson’ who went along with everything under Cameron.

      All in all it has shown Caroline Lucas to be a shallow opportunist and her left credentials are in tatters.

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    4. If a male MP suggested an all male Parliament, he would be put in stocks, have boiling tar thrown over him, castrated, (with a blunt junior hacksaw) crucified (for at least three days) and then hung drawn and quartered, just to make sure he was dead.

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