The Green Party’s only MP, Caroline Lucas, is standing down at the next election to focus on the “existential challenges” of “the nature and climate emergencies“. Lucas has been in Parliament for 13 years and is the first person to sit in the Commons as a Green MP. Now she’s leaving, apparently to help save the planet…

She wrote in an open letter this morning:

“I have always prided myself on being, first and foremost, a good constituency MP. I’ve done everything possible to help wherever I can and always worked to ensure that people feel heard, that their concerns matter, and that they are not alone. But the intensity of these constituency commitments, together with the particular responsibilities of being my party’s sole MP, mean that, ironically, I’ve not been able to focus as much as I would like on the existential challenges that drive me – the nature and climate emergencies […]

“The truth is, as these threats to our precious planet become ever more urgent, I have struggled to spend the time I want on these accelerating crises. I have therefore decided not to stand again as your MP at the next election.”

According to UK Polling Report, she was set to hold her Brighton seat at the next election:

Who will constantly oppose nuclear power in the name of the environment now?