Suspended Alison Teal leaves the Green Party and stands as independent in Sheffield Central

Alison Teal, who had been suspended from the Green Party since October 2022 for her views on trans rights, has announced that she has resigned from the party and will stand as an independent candidate for Sheffield Central.

This comes after the Green Party last week revealed that they were sending Cllr Angela Argenzio (Broomhill and Sharrow Vale), the chair of the council’s adult health and social care policy committee as well as the health and wellbeing board, as their candidate for Sheffield Central while Ms Teal was still being suspended.

Ms Teal said she started her (no-fault) suspension by being the Green Party’s candidate in Sheffield Central and she thought they could not have taken that away from her – but only a few days ago the Green Party announced a new candidate.

She said: “They just held me under this position, waiting for a general election to be called, and now there’s been a general election called, they’re able to use a bureaucratic device to say because I’m suspended, because the suspension hasn’t been resolved, they’re able to select a new candidate – which is what they did.”

She argued that under the party’s policy, she should have been deselected first.

According to the Yorkshire Post, a complaint against Ms Teal highlighted a series of tweets she had made about transgender issues in recent years, where she said sex is a biological characteristic which doesn’t change over time.

Last week, she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that she wasn’t transphobic.

In her resignation letter published on social media, Ms Teal said “being on no-fault suspension has given me a taste of how the party might govern and the prospect is frightening”.

She said: “Nineteen months on a no-fault suspension shows the party is either incompetent or malicious, and currently unfit to govern.”

According to the statement of persons nominated list, the residents of the Sheffield Central constituency will be able to pick between these candidates:

Angela Argenzio – Green Party

Sam Christmas – Liberal Democrats

Isabelle France – Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

Caitlin Hardy – Workers Party – For Britain, For Gaza

Abtisam Mohamed – Labour Party

Lucy Stephenson – The Conservative Party

Annie Stoker – Social Democratic Party

Alison Teal – Independent