The Argus (TA): What would be the worst-case election scenario in terms of Brexit and its consequences for Brighton and Hove?

Caroline Lucas (CL): The worst outcome is that Theresa May gets back in with an enhanced majority and is even more fired up to pursue an ideologically driven extreme Brexit.

She is perfectly prepared to say no deal is better than a bad deal which is to my mind is a ludicrous proposition because no deal would be catastrophic for the economy and for a city like Brighton which depends on being outward looking.

I have had so many people come to my constituency surgeries who are EU nationals, who have made their lives here. I have had people in tears just so distraught not knowing whether their future is secure. It feels to me it is the height of cruelty for the Government not to give the reassurance that any EU nationals here are going to keep their rights to stay.

TA: Can Brighton and Hove remain the city we are now after a hard Brexit?

CL: No I genuinely don’t think we can. One of our key sectors is our entertainment and leisure industry. I was talking to somebody who works at the Brighton Palace Pier who said there are 50 different nationalities of people who work on the pier.

We depend on that kind of labour, our hotels and bars are full of people from other countries and are better for it.

TA: Do you accept that we are leaving the EU or do you still hope a second referendum could see the British people reject the terms of Brexit?

CL: I certainly think democracy should be at the heart of this process. I think we are right to say it was the British public themselves who set this process off and it should be the British public who get to see the small print of the final deal and I don’t think that is impossible.

She has ruled that out but previously she had ruled out Parliament having a say at all and in the end she gave in to that.

I still think, depending what happens over the next 18 months, there could be an overwhelming clamour for people in the country to have a say.

If you’re buying insurance or getting a new phone contract, you have more chances to see the small print and check you are happy with what you are getting. What we are saying, is that on the ballot paper on the referendum on the final deal would be the question do you like the deal or having seen it, would you prefer to stay inside the EU.

TA: It seems strange that we have an incumbent government overseeing a financial crisis in schools, hospitals, police, prisons and councils and yet are expected to increase their majority. Can you put your finger on why this is happening?

CL: I think we have seen a failure of opposition and the most obvious place is on Brexit. If Labour had been willing to work with the Greens, Lib Dems and the nationalists I think we could have avoided this most extreme of Brexits.

Labour has been so divided and sadly Jeremy [Corbyn] has not been able to stamp his authority on the Parliamentary party and so instead of holding the Government’s feet to the fire, there has been far too much focus on fighting within the party.

TA: Did any chance of there not being a Theresa May-led government after June 8 die with the failure to establish a co-ordinated nationwide progressive alliance? Have hopes for a progressive alliance for future elections ended for good with that?

CL: The electoral alliances we were talking about were never one big pan-national alliance, it was always about local parties in the handful of marginal seats where it would make a difference exploring areas of sufficient agreement where we could field just one candidate who would be not just anti-Tory but in favour of changing the electoral system so we don’t have to have this big debate about tactical voting in the future.

What is heartening that at a grass roots level there has been so much enthusiasm for the idea. I think the genie is out of the bottle, the momentum is still there and will go on growing.

TA: Would a stonking victory for Theresa May make proportional representation more likely?

CL: It is so self-evidently the case that Labour would benefit from PR and would be even more the case if the polls are right and Theresa May gets the majority the polls are predicting, then the one very small silver lining to a very grim picture would be the momentum behind changing an electoral system that hands so much power to the last government that won just 24 per cent of the eligible vote.

TA: Is someone who supports the re-introduction of blood sports into this country a fit and proper person to be Prime Minister?

CL: The Green Party is unequivocal in its opposition to blood sports but we’re also unequivocal to penalising some of the most vulnerable people in our society, pushing people off disability benefit, introducing the bedroom tax. There are so many reason why Theresa May is unfit to be Prime Minister that I wouldn’t single out blood sports alone.

She has a very backward looking version of Conservatism, it’s the blood sports but also grammar schools and it feels the choice is do you want to go backwards or do you want to go forward to something that is more ambitious and hopeful. Her vision of what Britain is like is incredibly small, it’s closed to the rest of the world, we’re scared of people from other countries and we are going to revert back to some misty eyed version of England.