Having stood for election to the Isle of Wight Council last May, and then Newport and Carisbrooke Community Council in August (the latter successfully), I have seen first-hand how the Green Party campaigns and what they stand for.

In many respects, the Greens are to be applauded: they seek election on a clear platform, based on their beliefs and values.

One commitment is to anti-discrimination.

It is, therefore, no surprise that at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests the Isle of Wight Green Party tweeted that racism is woven into our cultural and socioeconomic structures.

Against this backdrop, it is staggering local Greens are so silent on the issue of the IW Council leader’s racially offensive collection of golly dolls.

Read more: Isle of Wight council leader in golly figure row

Read more: Lora Peacey-Wilcox finally explains golly figures

Two Green Party councillors are in coalition with Cllr Peacey-Wilcox and clearly continue to support her as leader of the local authority.

Their stance would perhaps be understandable if the council leader had acknowledged her lack of judgement and apologised for any offence caused.

Instead, she told the County Press that: “whatever the images you have been sent purport to show, I can confirm that I have no such items in my home”.

This response is both misleading and disingenuous.

The council leader knows exactly what those images show but she tries to pretend otherwise.

However, this matters not to the IW Greens. It turns out that this self-declared anti-racism party sees remaining in coalition at County Hall as a greater priority than speaking out and challenging things of a racially offensive nature, even when staring them in the face.

Let this be remembered next time the Greens decide to lecture the rest of us about what is right and wrong.