Skip to main content

Greens call for reform after a million votes get one seat

THE Greens led a clamour for electoral reform yesterday after a record one million votes across Britain left them with a single seat.

The so-called Green surge saw the party hit 1,138,445 votes — four times more than at any previous general election.

But Caroline Lucas, who increased her vote share in Brighton Pavilion by 11 per cent, will remain the sole Green MP for the next five years.

Speaking from Brighton, she said there would be “real anger” among voters that their views won’t be represented in Westminster.

And she pledged: “We will hold Parliament to account and push for real reform, starting with proportional representation, for a politics that looks far more like the people it’s supposed to represent.”

A BBC exit poll predicted that the Greens would snatch Norwich South, but it became one of four second-place finishes for the party.

In Bristol West, the Greens’ number two target seat, Darren Hall finished behind Labour despite a swing of 23 per cent, the biggest in England and Wales.

The Greens found themselves in an unlikely alliance for electoral reform with Ukip, who won just one seat despite attracting 3,830,029 votes.

Clacton MP Douglas Carswell said the result was not a reflection on Ukip or the Greens, but a sign of “how dysfunctional our political system is.”

Electoral Reform Society chief executive Katie Ghose said the “injustice” would be a “game changer.”

“We don’t have an electoral system which can cope with the choices that the people are making,” she argued.

OWNED BY OUR READERS

We're a reader-owned co-operative, which means you can become part of the paper too by buying shares in the People’s Press Printing Society.

 

 

Become a supporter

Fighting fund

You've Raised:£ 7,485
We need:£ 10,515
18 Days remaining
Donate today