Ecology Party
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The Ecology Party
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| Leader | Tony Whittaker |
| National Secretary | Lesley Whittaker |
| Chairman | Jonathan Tyler |
| Founded | 1975 |
| Dissolved | 1985 |
| Preceded by | PEOPLE Party |
| Succeeded by | The Green Party |
| Headquarters | Coventry |
| Ideology | Green politics |
| Political position | Left-wing |
The Ecology Party was a political party in the United Kingdom. It succeeded the People Party after a name change in 1975. The Ecology Party was the second step for Green politics in Britain and the grassroots of the Green Party of England and Wales.
The party won its first representation in 1976, when John Luck took a seat on Rother District Council in East Sussex, and party campaign secretary John Davenport won a parish council seat in Kempsey.
Jonathan Tyler was elected as the first chairman of the party in 1976, and Jonathon Porritt became a prominent member. That same year the Leader Tony Whittaker and National Secretary Lesley Whittaker (founder members of the original PEOPLE party) greatly reduced their involvement with the party. At the 1977 Party Conference in Birmingham, the Party's first constitution was ratified and Jonathon Porritt was elected to the Ecology Party National Executive Committee (NEC). Porritt would become the Party's most significant public figure, working, with David Fleming, "to provide the Party with an attractive image and effective organization".
With Porritt gaining increasing prominence and an election manifesto called The Real Alternative, the Ecology Party fielded 53 candidates in the 1979 General Election, entitling them to radio and television election broadcasts. Though many considered this a gamble, the plan, encouraged by Porritt, worked, as the Party received 39,918 votes (an average of 1.5%) and membership jumped tenfold from around 500 to 5,000 or more. This, Derek Wall notes, meant that the Ecology Party "became the fourth Party in UK politics, ahead of the National Front and Socialist Unity".
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