Some have described it as a draconian move, and both have been expelled for five years.

The Green candidate, Ruby Tucker, won 1,243 votes in the election, but WW is unaware that she ever appeared at the hustings or on the doorsteps of residents in the Godalming & Ash constituency. Has she been expelled, we wonder?

Jeremy Hunt held on to his seat by just 891 votes, with the Lib Dems coming second.

Cllrs Williams and Weightman landed in heavy-duty dog do for asking residents to vote for the Lib Dems. Cllr Williams told voters in Cranleigh and elsewhere that his Borough Council colleague Paul Follows was the man for the Westminster job.  

Williams, Weightman, and a third member have since been told the Greens were expelling them for supporting tactical voting so Hunt would lose.

Party notices sent to Williams and Weightman said they had “forfeited” their membership until 2029 for breaching a clause in the party constitution that prohibits members from standing against a Green or

“campaigning for someone who is standing against a properly selected Green”.

Those expelled said it seemed to go directly against the Green values of internal party democracy and tolerance.

However, the row was brewing long before the election when Green members suggested standing down their candidate to give the Liberal Democrats, Hunt’s primary challengers, a better chance of unseating the then-chancellor. They wanted “A Portillo” moment.

Steve Williams was originally the candidate against Hunt; in a secret ballot of the local party, which covers Hunt’s seat and two adjoining Surrey constituencies, including Hunt’s SW Surrey seat, members voted three-to-one in favour of Williams standing down. The candidates in the other seats remained in place.

Williams formally withdrew a few days before nominations closed. He told the Greens headquarters in England and Wales what the local party had decided.

He was shocked to hear that they would override a local decision. and parachute in another Green parliamentary candidate, notwithstanding the party’s commitment to stand in almost every constituency in the country. He was given no notice about an investigation or chance to present evidence or appeal. The grounds for his expulsion were questionable; for Weightman, they were “inaccurate and inadequate.”

Clare Weightman said she felt “betrayal and deep sadness”, saying that she and Williams had gone to other constituencies to campaign for Greens. 

A Green spokesperson said: “Green party members voted to stand a full slate of candidates at its final conference before the general election, which helped us secure a record number of votes and four MPs.

“In Godalming and Ash, there was a last-minute discussion of some members that didn’t override the wider national membership decision, and so the Green party’s governance bodies decided to uphold the membership’s decision on candidacy. Green party members at the  conference hold the most senior decision-making power in the Green party, and it is based on one member, one vote.”