The Greens are facing legal action from a portion of its own members after a trans woman was elected to a role on the party's council.

Eleanora Folan, who describes herself as a communist and 'anti-Zionist', won a vote last month to represent the Eastern Region on the council in a women's role.

Ms Folan, who was previously revealed to have been behind an X account that downplayed the horrors inflicted by Iran's extremist regime, will now contribute to the party's culture and wellbeing, as well as policy and strategy.

The Greens are facing legal action after gender critical members argued the result appears to be incompatible with the Supreme Court's ruling on gender last year that the term 'woman' within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010 refers only to biological women.

The ruling also stated this does not mean transgender people are not protected from discrimination, but that this is enshrined in a different part of the law. 

Gender critical members are said to be 'deeply concerned' over the appointment, and say this is not an 'isolated' case.

The Greens, led by Zack Polanski, are understood to already be facing separate legal action over its policies on sex and gender, with The Good Law Project pledging to defend them.

Jude English, director of Green Women's Declaration and co-chair of Green Party Women, told The Times of Ms Folan's appointment: 'Following the Supreme Court judgment, we believe the law is clear about the meaning of sex, yet the Green Party has made no meaningful attempt to review its rules or practices and has instead continued to act as though nothing has changed.

'This is not an isolated concern. The party is currently facing several court cases because it has repeatedly broken equality law. The leadership cannot simply ignore the law because it disagrees with it, and it cannot claim women's rights are being protected while allowing a women's position to be filled in this way.

'The party has been repeatedly warned about these issues. This is an especially blatant example of why women in the Green Party have lost confidence in its willingness to protect their rights.'

Lesbian Greens, another gender critical group, said her appointment 'symbolises the change' in the Green Party and highlighted the support from Greens For Palestine.

Ms Folan was last month revealed to be behind 'Stats for Lefties', an X account with almost 100,000 followers.

In posts she made the extraordinary claim that Labour had 'killed and maimed far more people in the past 20 years than the Iranian regime could ever possibly dream of doing in a century'.

The Iranian regime is one of the fiercest in the world, and is known for its restrictions on women and minorities, including the LGBT+ community.

Homosexuality is still illegal in Iran and intercourse between men carries the death penalty.

Iran is also known to have killed large numbers of its own citizens, including thousands – some estimates say more than 30,000 – this year alone following a brutal crackdown on protests against its regime.

Ms Folan wrote that she urged the left to 'stand firmly against the British state's colonial project to topple the Iranian government' after Britain imposed sanctions for these same killings.

She has also called for Israel to be 'abolished'. 

Posting on X following her election to the council role, Ms Folan wrote: 'I know there will be Zionists reading this who are utterly furious that I won. I welcome their hatred.'

She added: 'Our party has changed, and my election as a proud anti-Zionist trans woman symbolises that change.'

The party is already facing legal action from GWD over its decision to reject an application for the group to hold a stall there, which the group claim amounted to discrimination. A pre-action letter was sent last year.

The Good Law Project announced this week it would defend them over the claim, and launched a fundraiser to cover legal costs. 

The Greens are estimated to be spending almost £200,000 a year on legal costs and external investigations into disciplinary cases.

One such case was brought under the Equality Act by former deputy leader Shahrar Ali, after he was removed as a party spokesperson. 

A judge found the party had unlawfully discriminated against him because of his protected gender-critical beliefs. He was awarded £9,100 compensation – although the judge said he could still have been removed if the party had followed a fair procedure.

A Green Party spokesperson said: 'All elections to Green Party positions are held in accordance with our rules and constitution, and we always act within the law.

'We do not accept that the flawed EHRC guidance prevents us from continuing to hold our elections in accordance with our rules, and we remain clear that trans women are women, trans men are men and that non-binary identities exist and are valid.'