The Green party prides itself on its openness and accountability to members. It is one of the only political parties to allow its members not only to propose policy but also to have almost complete control over party policy by virtue of the votes on conference floor. There are many ways to critique this absurdity – from policy being decided only by those who can afford to attend conference, to the complexity of policy this produces and the impracticality of passing a national policy platform in such a short window of time. It’s this procedure that resulted in the Greens failing to remove an old policy of banning all cars that could attain speeds over the European Union speed limit (so, all cars) in time for the 2015 general election.

The Greens’ policy plight is relevant to Labour today because the an idea of a progressive alliance of the left political parties – between Labour, Greens, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National party – has been floated again. A woolly idea at best, covering everything from sharing a policy platform to electoral pacts, but the essence remains the same – to borrow a phrase, that leftwing parties achieve more together than they do alone.

Though those who have campaigned in Scotland scoff at the idea of the SNP as a leftwing party, this idea is taken quite seriously by some Labour members – especially those who have joined recently. Many members that joined under Jeremy Corbyn will have voted Lib Dem or Green in past elections. Their ideology is defined by their sense of what is ‘leftwing’ more-so than what is ‘Labour’. Grouping one half of a broad spectrum of politics together does not lend itself to scrutinizing each party’s policy – or an understanding of their irreconcilable differences.

These differences are extremely important to members who have campaigned tirelessly for their party on the doorstep and consider a progressive alliance a betrayal of their party’s core values and integrity. I’m talking, of course, about Green party members.

It is almost hallucinatory to remember that Britain felt on the brink of a hung parliament before last year’s general election. Labour and the Tories were neck and neck, and it seemed like small surges of fringe parties were disrupting politics as we knew it. The Green surge rallied thousands to join the party, making it the fourth largest political party in England and Wales at the time, and though the Ukip surge had been slower, its presence loomed over both Tory and Labour ‘heartlands’. The Greens had more winnable target seats that ever before – they thought – and the atmosphere within the party was one of eager anticipation. Conference that year was so heady on surge success that a motion was tabled that would dictate what Green members of parliament (oh, the optimism of the plural) would do in the event of a hung parliament.

Caroline Lucas has been a vocal advocate of a progressive alliance for years. Yet at the Green conference of spring 2015, Green party members debated and passed a resolution that Green MPs would not join a coalition with any party unless Green MPs made up the majority of that coalition. To be clear, at a time when even if the party had won all four of their target seats, they still would be the smallest party in any sort of ‘progressive alliance’ proposed by Lucas or anyone else. In addition to this, rejection of an austerity budget would be ‘a clear and objective red line in any such negotiations’.

The policy debate was heated. Members were angry that Lucas had said that she thought the Greens served as a left pressure group to Labour. Many Green members had no desire to be an environmentally-conscious Momentum or to prop up any party they felt they had little in common with. The unrealistic motion that eventually passed was the result of a deep ideological cleft within the party being squeezed into a 30-minute conference floor discussion.

The advent of Corbyn has increased the divide among Green members. With Corbyn’s election came a flurry of articles in Bright Green, Medium blogs and collaborative leftwing publications insisting that the Green party remained relevant. These articles critiqued the parliamentary system, Corbyn’s policies and the Labour party in general. There was also a flurry of Green members joining Labour. The result has been that members reluctant to form an electoral pact with Labour in March 2015 have a larger majority within the Green party in September 2016.

With John McDonnell poaching Liz Kendall’s idea of ‘fiscal credibility’, it is yet to be seen whether hard line Green members will take this as an ‘austerity budget’. With or without this speculation, the reality is that while Lucas writes her fifth Guardian article calling for a progressive alliance, this must first pass on Green conference floor. Given the changing demographic of Green party membership and the precedent already set, it is unlikely that the most vocal advocate of a progressive alliance has the backing of her own party, let alone those she seeks to join with.

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Megan Corton Scott is events officer and editorial assistant at Progress. She tweets @mcortonscott

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