Green Party hope to more than double Durham councillors
During a visit to Gainford today (April 13), Carla Denyer said she believes her party has been going from “strength to strength” in the region.
The Bristol Central MP spoke with candidates for Lower Teesdale Green, Sarah Hannan and Marc Cole – before canvassing by knocking on the doors of voters.
She told The Northern Echo: “We’ve got a really exciting opportunity with the local elections coming up on May 1 – Greens have been going from strength to strength in the North East over the last few years.
“It was in 2019 that the Greens got its first councillor up here and now we have got growing groups of councillors in a number of councils. Now, we have one councillor in County Durham and two in Northumberland.
“This time round, we are standing a record number of candidates across both counties – more than we ever have before.
“Almost everyone will have the opportunity to vote green, and we are getting really positive reactions on the doorstep.”
However, when Ms Denyer was asked what victory would look like for the Greens in May, she emphasised that they are optimistic their numbers could more than double.
She said: “I’m not a betting woman so I don’t tend to bet on an exact number, but the Green Party is the only party in the UK to have grown its number of councillors every single year over the last seven years. No other party has managed to do that.
“Over the last five years, we have increased our number of councils nationally nearly fivefold. This is all in the context of really steady growth so here in County Durham, for example, I think that it is certainly reasonable to expect that we might more than double our representation.
“A lot of people are already open to the idea of voting green because they feel really frustrated and let down by Labour and the Conservatives, and are angry in many cases.
“A lot of people voted Labour in the general election last year on Labour’s promise of change and are not seeing the kind of positive change they wanted to see.
“It is also an opportunity to get some fresh perspectives on the council and elect some people who will work really hard for their communities.”
However, alongside the Greens being on the rise in the North East, arguably, so is Reform UK.
During a visit to the region last week, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said, “The colour of County Durham politics is going to look very different in a few weeks, and that I’m very confident of.”
Despite this, Ms Denyer emphasised she is confident the Greens are seen by voters as an antidote to Reform’s “finger pointing” tactics.
She added: “There certainly is a rise in support for far-right parties like Reform UK in the UK and across Europe – and yes, I am concerned about that.
Recommended:
“But to be honest, from our experience in the council by elections that have happened over the last nine months or so since the general election is that often where Greens stand it prevents Reform from getting in.
“Now, I am not guaranteeing that we are going to do that in every seat in County Durham but I know that a lot of voters are seeing the Green Party as the positive antidote to Reform as they are rightly angry and feeling let down by Labour and the Conservatives.
“Voters are excited to be able to vote for the Green Party who are taking a more positive approach and being honest about the causes of the problems in this country rather than finger-pointing at migrants who come here to work in our NHS, for example.”
