Greens to end campaign with focus on ‘marginals’ including Bristol and Brighton
The Green Party has named four seats which it will target on Wednesday.
Green campaigners will turn their attention four “tight marginals” on the final day before General Election polls open.
According to co-leader Carla Denyer, her party hopes to return four MPs after voting on Thursday – up from a single seat previously – in a bid to encourage “an incoming Labour government to be bolder and braver”.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is tipped to become prime minister by the end of this week, with pollsters putting Labour around 19 points ahead of the Conservatives.
The Green Party has named four seats which it will target on Wednesday, including Bristol Central which Ms Denyer is contesting, and Brighton Pavilion where Sian Berry hopes to replace her party colleague Caroline Lucas, who has represented the coastal constituency since 2010.
Co-leader Adrian Ramsay is contesting Waveney Valley, another seat on the target list which straddles the Norfolk and Suffolk boundary, with Ellie Chowns contesting North Herefordshire.
Ms Denyer said: “Our aim is to win at least four Green MPs and (we) are within touching distance of doing just that.
“We have brought real hope to this campaign, the hope that a group of Green MPs can bring by pushing an incoming Labour government to be bolder and braver in delivering the real change our country needs.
“We have broken through the conspiracy of silence from the other parties around the need to invest in our NHS and public services, and voters are responding.
“We have made the most powerful case of all the parties for the massive investment needed in our NHS and social care, paid for through a fairer tax system that asks multi-millionaires and billionaires to pay a little more.”
Mr Ramsay said: “We have stood in a record number of constituencies across England and Wales.
“That is because we want to give everyone the chance to vote Green so that they can send the clearest possible message to the incoming government that we need real change to tackle the climate crisis, restore nature and end the cost-of-living crisis for millions of people.”
He added: “More Green MPs – and every vote cast for a Green candidate tomorrow – tells the new government to be more ambitious and deliver what our country really needs to undo the damage of this reckless Conservative government.
“We need a group of Green MPs inside Parliament to press for action to restore our public services and defend our environment.”
The Green Party had a recent electoral success at Bristol’s 2024 local election, where the party secured 34 out of 70 seats up for grabs – up from 24 before May’s poll.
In Bristol Central, Ms Denyer is up against Labour’s shadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire, Reform UK’s Robert Clarke, the Liberal Democrats’ Nicholas Coombes, Kellie-Jay Keen from the Party of Women, and the Conservatives’ Samuel Williams.
Green campaigners also saw electoral success in Mid Suffolk, which includes the town of Eye in the Waveney Valley constituency, where they won their first outright majority on a UK council last year, securing 24 out of 34 seats – up from 12.
Mr Ramsay faces competition from Reform UK’s Scott Huggins, Labour’s Gurpreet Padda, the Conservatives’ Richard Rout, Maya Severyn of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and the Liberal Democrats’ John Shreeve.
But the party suffered losses in Brighton and Hove in 2023 securing just seven city council seats, having previously led the authority as a minority administration.
Ms Lucas’s majority in Brighton Pavilion was 19,940 in 2019. Ms Berry faces challengers Steve Al, an independent, the SDP’s Carl Buckfield, Gomez bandmate and Labour candidate Tom Gray, Reform UK’s Mark Mulvihill, the Liberal Democrats’ Ashley Ridley, Citizen Skwith of the Monster Raving Loony Party and the Conservatives’ Sarah Webster.
