The former Green MP on patriotism, protest and and why Labour is much less ambitious than its voters

It’s tempting to think of Caroline Lucas as a kind of spirit of place in Brighton. She has arrived first at Food for Friends, the oldest vegetarian restaurant in the city, and there is something almost mythical in seeing the pioneering Green MP in its window seat, facing the Lanes, framed by trailing foliage. She has been coming here for as long as she can remember, she says – the restaurant opened in 1981 and used to have folk queuing around the block. She recommends the blueberry and ginger “nojito”, orders the Thai noodle salad and crispy tofu, and half apologises for still being “a vegetarian on the road to veganism” without quite yet arriving at that destination.

It’s nine months since Lucas stepped down after 14 years in parliament as her party’s first and, in that time, only MP. I sense that she is still getting used to this kind of thing – leisurely lunches on a weekday, without somewhere to dash off to. She is, rightly, adamant that she has not retired. Far from it: she remains a tireless activist on the issues she cares about – the environment and the climate crisis, and Britain’s return to Europe (among several other patron and ambassador roles she is co-president of the European Movement with the former attorney general Dominic Grieve). She is writing a children’s book, and has an acclaimed adult one already out – called Another England, and one reason for our lunch. It’s about the idea of England, and “how to reclaim our national story”.