Is Labour now a threat to the Greens?

Natalie Bennett admitted many are wondering if Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party is crowding the Green Party's space

It's been a turbulent year for the Green Party.

In May 2014 they had close to 18,000 members but 12 months later that number had soared to 60,000 - it became known as the "Green surge".

But despite increasing their vote four-fold in the 2015 general election and picking up more than one million votes, they only won one seat, holding onto Brighton Pavilion where Caroline Lucas is the MP.

Now lurking on the left-wing of British politics is something new - a Labour party led by Jeremy Corbyn - and as the Green's leader, Natalie Bennett, noted during her autumn conference speech many are wondering if it's crowding the Green Party's space.

Ben Hickey described the buzz around campaigning during the election

In Islington North, where Jeremy Corbyn is the local MP, the enthusiasm and energy in the Green Party remains undimmed.

Ben Hickey is one of the Islington Green Party members. Sitting in the local Green councillor's kitchen he told me that "during the election we had dozens of people here leafleting, canvassing, it was a bit of an HQ." He said "we'd had so many new members as well, people coming through with no experience in politics, polling, mucking in, it was fantastic".

Since the general election 7,000 people have joined the Green Party but more than 3,000 have left. Peter Kellner, the president of the polling organisation YouGov told me many are heading to Labour.

'Hostile system'

"There is no doubt that Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party is siphoning votes off from the Greens," he said. "Quite a lot of Green members joined the Labour party to vote for him. I think the Greens have a real challenge - one of the reasons for the challenge is that they face a very hostile voting system."

He added: "They have one MP. They had what, one million plus votes at the general election. Had we had a proportional voting system they'd have had what, 20 MPs… The Greens are not a big party and if so many of their active supporters decided to sign up for Labour that's a real problem for the Greens."

Martha Everett from Buxton in Derbyshire was a Labour voter but joined the Greens before the election. Now that Jeremy Corbyn has been elected leader she has switched back to Labour. She paid £3 and signed up as an affiliated supporter to vote for Mr Corbyn and intends to vote Labour at the next general election.

'Make a difference'

"It purely comes down to thinking that my vote will actually make a difference rather than just being a protest vote" she told me, adding that "the policies don't seem to be widely different although obviously Labour have a bit more experience of actually being in power as well so in that respect more likely to get things done I would have thought."

Caroline Lucas said there was a "general churn" in politics

But Caroline Lucas dismissed concern that Mr Corbyn's Labour could start siphoning off votes from the Greens and that the so-called Green surge could turn out to be temporary.

"I think the core of that is significant and will stay," she told me.

"Yes some people are leaving," she admitted, "but others are joining and we're still seeing net increase in the number of our members."

'Hold strong'

She continued: "There is just a general churn in politics. In the old days people would join a party and stay with it for life. They'd often join it because their parents were members of it beforehand. I think now people are much more flexible, fluid.

"Politics is very different, it's moving much faster. It wouldn't surprise me if those people who have left come back again. The Greens are doing something distinctive and I hope people will stay with us because they recognise that."

Back on the streets of Islington the Greens are keeping up the fight.

The local Green councillor, Caroline Russell, is optimistic. She stood against Jeremy Corbyn in the general election and told me she managed to increase the Green share of the vote three-fold: "It shows even up against Jeremy Corbyn himself the Green vote can hold strong. That indication gives me hope."