CAROLINE Lucas has said she would be willing to see her party's candidates drop out of elections to avoid splitting the vote.

The Green MP for Brighton Pavilion indicated she was willing to enter electoral pacts with other "progressive" parties to stop Tories getting into power.

Mr Lucas is a favourite to be co-leader of her party in a month-long ballot that has now closed.

She said yesterday: "It doesn't make sense for parties of the left to be constantly fighting each other and meanwhile the Conservatives come through and we've seen that time after time in the 2015 general election.

"I think what we are looking at is those marginal constituencies where some kind of agreement between progressive parties might be able to make a difference."

Asked whether she was prepared to see a Green candidate drop out of a constituency race so long as Labour did the same elsewhere, she said: "Personally I would", but stressed it was up to her party to decide.

Writing on her Facebook page this week, Ms Lucas added that party tribalism was a threat to commonly held goals.

She said: "Overcoming party tribalism and finding practical ways of working together will be crucial to any hope of progressive policies finding a majority at the next election – whether that be on the NHS, tackling inequality, putting rail in public hands, or seriously addressing the climate crisis.

"Real leadership means being bold and honest enough to recognise that there’s far too much at stake to refuse to cooperate for the common good."

Campaigners have argued that Greens fielding candidate in Brighton Kemp Town has split the vote allowing the Conservatives to win the seat, and helping them towards a parliamentary majority.

However, earlier this month Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn ruled out an electorate pact with the Green MP, insisting he was confident of winning Brighton back for Labour in 2020 and repeating the party’s landslide in the city of 1997.

He told the Argus earlier this month: “What we are doing as a party committed to the Labour cause and position, in opposition in parliament in order to maximise votes against the government obviously we cooperate with other opposition parties.

“Does this translate into electoral pacts? No.”