Given the treatment of Dr Pallavi Devulapalli, you’d be forgiven for thinking she’d taken a private jet to club seals on a jolly funded by ExxonMobil. In reality, all the Green Party’s former health spokesperson did was question the political use of hate crime statistics and praise the evidence-based recommendations of paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass.
For that, she was suspended, investigated and ultimately expelled. She now sits as an independent councillor in West Norfolk.
The first sign that something was seriously amiss came at the 2023 Green Party conference. Dr Devulapalli, then both a councillor and the party’s national health spokesperson, had just returned from an NHS rally when she entered the hall — only to discover that a motion on fertility had been passed. It declared that everyone, regardless of sex or age, had a “right” to conceive, and that the NHS should provide the necessary treatment.
The activists behind the motion insisted that “barriers” to fertility treatment faced by single people, older people, and even those who are “sex-averse or sex-repulsed” should be removed.
“As a doctor,” she says, “I know that’s neither credible as a policy nor medically reasonable. It made the Green Party look ridiculous. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed a troubling tendency within the party to pass well-meaning but ill-informed motions that lack nuance or scientific grounding.”
At the same event deputy leader Zack Polanski thundered from the platform, “Trans women are women. Trans men are men.” Devulapalli recalled “I cringed, and I was not alone.”
But voicing that discomfort is forbidden.“There are many sex-realist members within the party, but they’ve been intimidated into silence.” (Incidentally, this is not Polanski’s only bonkers belief, he once offered women hypnotherapy sessions to promote breast growth. I certainly trust him on science.)
At another conference session, Dr Devulapalli remembers a young woman who stood to defend sex-based rights and was abruptly shut down. “Effectively told to sit down and be quiet. The atmosphere shifted immediately; it became hostile and intolerant. It’s difficult to imagine any other issue provoking that kind of response, but because these views are framed in terms of ‘inclusion’ and ‘kindness,’ bullying is not only tolerated — it’s encouraged.”
So what explains this shift from debate to dogma? Dr Devulapalli attributes it partly to demographics. Over recent years a wave of left‑wing voters who feel let down by Labour and socialist organisations have joined the Greens and brought their more authoritarian values with them.
“Collective action requires discipline, solidarity, and never breaking ranks,” she says. That, she adds, may help on picket lines, but “it’s at odds with the founding ethos of the Green Party, which was based on grassroots democracy and open debate.”
“I’m no sociologist, but I suspect within that culture, doubt and nuance are often seen as weakness. To succeed politically, the prevailing belief seems to be that everyone must act and speak in unison.”
The consequences are far-reaching. “Like almost every institution,” she says, “the Green Party has been influenced by gender ideology. Entire internal mechanisms have been captured by activists with a hard-line agenda.”
Years spent in the political wilderness have made environmentalists a resilient bunch. And so today, following the party’s purges, multiple fringe groups of disaffected supporters have sprung up — including Gender Critical Greens, the Green Women’s Declaration, and Green Party Lesbians. These are current and former members believe they follow the science on climate change, they follow the science on sex. But for that they have become pariahs.
Internally, even those who could intercede don’t: “Among the leadership, those who should know better have too often lacked the courage to stand up to the bullies.”
The ideology is dangerous — and the evidence doesn’t back it
She believes most of the party’s members don’t believe the slogans they spout. “If they were honest, many in the party would admit that statements like ‘trans women are women’ are simply not true. Some adopt them cynically to appease activist factions… Others are true believers.”
Either way, she says, the ideology is dangerous — and the evidence doesn’t back it. “I don’t think those promoting this really understand the consequences of so-called ‘trans healthcare’. There’s no convincing evidence that it’s effective. It’s not grounded in sound science. In fact, multiple studies suggest that affirming people’s trans identities doesn’t necessarily improve their mental health outcomes — and there are serious risks associated with medical interventions.”
Her professional experience as a GP has given her an insight into the harms that the most prominent voices within the party continue to ignore.
“More and more evidence is emerging of the harms of cross sex hormones on health including loss of bone density, urinary problems, chronic pain, tissue destruction, sexual dysfunction, infertility, significant increase in risk of cardiovascular disease including strokes and heart attacks and psychological disorders.”
What drew Dr Devulapalli to the Green Party was not just a profound love of nature; it was also the ethos of the organisation, which once valued debate as part of a political ecosystem where ideas were tested and then put to the membership.
“Since my expulsion, I’ve been contacted by many current and former members who have expressed their support and admiration. That gives me hope — but it also shows how many feel isolated, marginalised, and unable to speak openly within a party that once prided itself on compassion and integrity.”
The fight for the soul of the Green Party has been raging now for a decade. But without a return to evidence, humility and openness the party will rot at the very time the conditions are there for its growth.
