Former Greens leader Caroline Lucas today used her speech at their spring conference to crush rumours of a rift at the top of the party.
In a speech introducing current leader Natalie Bennett at the party's largest ever conference, held in Liverpool, Lucas, the MP for Brighton Pavilion, began by first insisting that she has no intention of being leader again.
"When I stood down as leader [in 2012]," Lucas said, "I knew that the party would find someone who could help us grow. To reach out to new members, build our profile. I just didn't guess how well she would do it.
"In Natalie we have a leader who has done all of that and more. I am proud to call her my colleague and my friend. She is doing a fantastic job and we all owe her our thanks and support."
For her part, Bennett responded in kind, praising Lucas. "Caroline has led on debates on issues from railway ownership to statutory personal and social education," she said.
"She has led on the debate on parliamentary democracy. And she has put her freedom on the line to oppose fracking. Because Caroline shows what voting Green delivers. Passion, sensitivity, and courage."
The party has been plagued with rumours of a leadership crisis and a rift between Lucas and Bennett.
These intensified when Bennett was criticised for her performance in a radio interview where she failed to respond to questions about how the party would pay for a proposed manifesto policy about housing.
The Greens have seen a significant increase in membership in the last year. There was a specific spike in membership when 300,000 people signed an online petition demanding that the Greens be involved in TV debates for the general election.
Bennett also used her conference speech to lay out the Green party's key messages on the NHS, economy, and climate change. "This election can be a turning point in history," she said.
She added: "The politics of the future delivers social housing, council housing, meets our housing needs. The politics of the future delivers for everyone, within the limits of our one planet, because that is the only place that we have to live."