As Caroline Lucas prepares to leave Westminster, she has revealed what she will miss most from her role as an MP.

The Green MP for Brighton Pavilion announced last month she will stand down at the next election in order to focus her attention on climate activism.

Ms Lucas has spent some 13 years in the House of Commons since being first elected in 2010, with another 11 years spent in the European Parliament representing South East England.

In an exclusive interview with The Argus, Ms Lucas said there is one thing she will miss the most when her time in Westminster comes to an end.

She said: “It’s just the extraordinary privilege to be able to eyeball the Prime Minister and to ask the questions that you feel are the most important.

“I can feel very frustrated by the answer sometimes, but that access to influence and power - as someone who wants to change so much, is something I think I will miss enormously.”

Ms Lucas also said that, despite how “frustrating” Westminster can seem at times, “it is the most extraordinary privilege to stand up on behalf of the people of this city and to raise their concerns in the most important forum in the country”.

Read all of Caroline Lucas's exclusive interview with The Argus:

 

With around a year left before the next election, Ms Lucas said she is going to focus on continuing her work for residents in the city.

She said: “The most important thing to me has always been being a good constituency MP and that’s not going to change.

“I think some people misunderstand and ask if I’m stepping down now and what will happen to all the casework. I want to make it clear - I will go on being a good constituency MP right up until someone takes over, so constituency work will be a big part of what I will be doing.

“There is an energy bill coming to Parliament in September and I want to be able to use that to ensure we move faster and more effectively to a greener energy system.”

Ms Lucas also said she hopes to put pressure on whichever party will become the next government to do more to tackle the climate crisis.

While she is moving out of her family home in the city, she said that she will “not be going very far”.

Sian Berry will contest Ms Lucas’s constituency of Brighton Pavilion as the next Green candidate for the next general election in the hopes of keeping the party’s only seat in Parliament.