The Greens in Exeter saw their share of the vote quadruple compared with 2017 in December 12th’s General election, securing 8.6% of the vote.
Joe Levy, the Green Party Parliamentary Candidate said,
“This result confirms that the Green Party is on the up in Exeter. The great result comes at the end of a fantastic year for Greens in Exeter. In May we saw our first elected Green councillor in St David’s who won with a landslide, and then in the European elections we achieved 27% of the vote, narrowly missing coming first in the city.”
Commenting on the national result Mr Levy said,
“This election just shows we need democratic reform, bringing in a proportional system so that everyone’s vote counts. Our unfair and unrepresentative electoral system has delivered a Conservative government determined to rip us out of the EU, against the will of the population who want to Remain, and deliver a host of other damaging policies.
Labour must also accept responsibility for this result. For three years they sat on the fence over Brexit rather than making a strong case for a People’s Vote or alerting people in Leave voting Labour constituencies of the huge damage that leaving the EU will have on their lives. They also refused to work cooperatively with other parties, putting tribal politics before working for the common good.
Greens will continue to make the case for remaining in the EU; will always defend free movement and push hard for a Green New Deal to create jobs and tackle the climate emergency.”
He added, “I’d like to thank our volunteers and supporters whose hard work has paid off, and of course thank the 4,836 people who voted brave and voted Green, despite our unfair and unrepresentative voting system.”