CAROLINE Lucas has launched a crowdfunder to make up the shortfall in public money her party will receive following last month’s election.

The country’s only Green MP has called on her supporters to help her continue her work in Parliament after the party lost more than £100,000.

The Greens will receive less than half the funding in the new Parliament after their vote dropped from 1.16 million to 525,000, caused partly by standing 68 fewer candidates than in 2015.

Party figures said they did not regret the decision to take part in progressive electoral pacts which saw them forego votes in at least 22 seats, including Brighton Kemptown where they won more than 3,000 votes in 2015, in a bid to oust Tory candidates.

The party’s Short money will reduce from £212,100 to £107,533 but the crowdfunder has already achieved its £50,000 target with nine days left.

The Brighton Pavilion MP said she needed the funding to achieve her ambition to be the “sharpest thorn in the Government’s side”.

Ms Lucas said she had “big plans” to challenge the Government over arms sales to Saudi Arabia, Yarl’s Wood detention centre, scrutinise every single environmental policy and force Britain into nuclear weapon ban talks but needed her team, which is set to lose 3.5 FTE members of staff, to help her achieve it.

Ms Lucas said: “I’ve been blown away by the support for this crowdfunder. Over 1,900 people have donated and I’ll be repaying them by doing everything possible to hold this Government to account. I’m proud of the part the Green Party played in the last election. Not only did we bring issues to the table that were ignored by others, but we led the way in pushing for a different kind of politics by reaching across party lines for the best outcome for this country.”

Davy Jones, the Brighton and Hove Green Party co-chairman who agreed to stand aside in Brighton Kemptown, said: “I think it was still worth it, sometimes you have to act for the greater good and not just put the political party first.

“It is going to affect in terms of funding and screen time, we knew this.

“We made a major contribution to the Tories not getting a majority and if you look at the city, we literally made the difference. I get stopped a lot by people who say it was a great thing to have stood down.

“We have a lot of respect for what we did and sometimes that results in more support and votes gained in the future. We are not looking at the short term here.”