The Green Party has tended to be viewed as a space dominated by white, middle-class people, but all four candidates say they want to change that. For Denyer and Ramsay, the key to making politics more inclusive is to create a safe space in the Green Party. “There are some local parties that are really warm, welcoming, inclusive spaces. But we know that unfortunately, that’s not currently the case everywhere,” Denyer says. In practical terms, the pair hope to “raise issues that the other parties just aren’t interested in, or don’t have the courage to say out loud”.

Omond and Womack take things a step further. Their recently published liberation manifesto declares that “racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, queerphobia, transphobia, sexism, ableism, classism, ageism and other human rights issues will divide us not when we take a stand against them, but when we don’t.”

They propose to transform the Green Party by establishing a “liberation panel”, comprised of representatives from marginalised groups, to advise the leadership. It will develop an education programme, to challenge ingrained cultures within the party, and tackle hate speech by strengthening accountability processes.

Omond says they draw inspiration from Black feminist organisers and the teachings of Audre Lorde, a revolutionary poet, essayist, and autobiographer known for her passionate writings on lesbian feminism and race. “These are the kinds of ideas that we need at the centre of our national conversation about how we’re going to survive what’s coming next,” says Omond. “Because what is coming next is going to be overwhelming, even for white, cis privileged people. They’re going to need to learn from people who have been living and surviving and even thriving whilst being excluded by the systems of oppression.”

Many young voters are coming into adulthood with a heightened awareness of how factors such as racism, capitalism, transphobia and climate change affect their lives. Once marginal, the Green Party’s popularity has ebbed and flowed in recent years as voters search for alternatives: currently, they are enjoying a resurgence, having won a total of 155 seats, including 99 gains, in the 2021 local elections.

Young people, including those who aren’t old enough to vote yet, are about to inherit the world at a chaotic moment. Even if we are sometimes put off by mainstream politics, we are politically engaged and not afraid to share our views on social and environmental justice.

In one sense, this is nothing new. But the youth of 2021 have had a profoundly different set of experiences from previous generations, and have therefore developed a very different set of political values to match the world they’ve grown up in. If you’re a young person, there’s a good chance that capitalism has failed you, arguably more so than older generations. In many communities, social mobility has declined, housing costs are prohibitive, education has grown increasingly expensive, and the job market is more competitive than ever. On top of this, COVID-19 has shifted the country’s social, economic and political landscape.

When you factor in the extra hurdles created by white supremacy and patriarchy, it becomes clearer that young voters want political leaders that will listen and be attuned to the needs of the people they represent.

Omond and Womack’s liberation manifesto offers voters intersectional, feminist political leadership. Omond is the first openly trans and non-binary person to run for the leadership of a national political party. “Representation creates inspiration,” says Womack – indeed, by having Omond run as co-leader, this team shows us that there is space in political leadership for trans voices where they have been ignored and underrepresented for too long.

Denyer and Ramsay, meanwhile, hope to change the current structure of their under-resourced disciplinary committee, which often puts members in “very uncomfortable positions for a long time”. They say that the Greens “can’t rely on [underrepresented] individuals to do all the heavy lifting themselves”, and recognise that sometimes learning and discussion isn’t enough.

In a world where it can feel like you’re screaming into the void about experiences of prejudice while people try to deny its existence, it is encouraging to hear politicians wrestle with complicated questions about privilege, power and how our default assumptions have driven marginalised communities out of important conversations.

Something that both teams share is a desire to make the Green Party a safe and welcoming space for all, especially since the party has recently been rocked by accusations of transphobia. For Denyer and Ramsay, this includes living by the principle of ‘nothing about us without us’ and truly listening to the voices of the marginalised. Similarly, for Womack and Omond, the aim is to be “uplifting voices that aren’t represented and trying to bring the solutions that already exist within those communities into the heart of our political debate”.