Could Greens gain ground in Redbridge!

From The Press Association, by Chris Mead

Mainstream parties were routed in an astonishing council by-election result just days before Prime Minister Gordon Brown is expected to call a general election.

The Greens' Rachel Eburne captured a Tory seat at Mid Suffolk District, also humiliating the Liberal Democrats and Labour.

She polled 61% of the vote at Haughley and Wetherden with a 33.2% net swing from the Conservatives.

Labour, which had a councillor in the ward until 2003, polled just 32 votes.

The Lib Dems, a close second last time, only managed 51.

Result: Mid Suffolk District - Haughley and Wetherden: Green 444, Cons 176, Lib Dem 51, Lab 32, Ukip 25. (May 2007 - C 354, Lib Dem 309, Green 122).

Green gain from Conservative. Swing 33.2% C to Green.

The result comes a week before another by-election challenge for the Green Party in a Lancaster City Council ward where they shared seats with Labour in 2007.

Green leader Caroline Lucas is seeking a General Election breakthrough for her party.

She is fighting Brighton Pavilion where party city councillor Keith Taylor polled 9,530 - 21.9% - in 2005. Ms Lucas, an MEP, would need a 7.3% swing for victory.

Press Association analysis of the 2007 city council elections in Brighton Pavilion put the Greens in the lead just 221 ahead of the Tories, with Labour trailing more than 1,000 votes further behind in third place.

Another possibility for the party has emerged in recent years in Norwich South where it took first place in last year's Norfolk County Council polls. Labour, the party of sitting MP and former Cabinet minister Charles Clarke, came in fourth.

Analysis of a small sample of four comparable results in March suggest a projected 7% nationwide Tory lead over Labour.

In the case of the Mid Suffolk contest, the comparison is with the 2003 council elections when Labour last fought the ward.

Ms Lucas said: "This is a great result, with a by-election win off the Tories. Once we elect a few Greens in an area, people like what they see and it leads to even more Green councillors. It also shows our commitment to grassroots politics at a time of deep dissatisfaction with mainstream politicians."

Ms Eburne said: "I was a local candidate and involved in my community." She added: "I found a deep disaffection on the doorstep with politics from other parties that were not relevant to everyday concerns - things like our position on better broadband access and our work on
reducing local traffic speeds and litter."

Ms Eburne is a former director of Women's Environmental Network.

The Green Party claims 126 councillors on 43 authorities across England and Wales - including three in Mid Suffolk.

Perhaps with your help we might gain more council seats locally and a Local Green MP. I met Mike Gapes over the weekend and he smirked, whilst telling me that the Green Party would be wasting a £500 deposit for me to run as a Prospective Parliamentary Candidate. Sometimes, I think elected politicians forget it is the public that vote them in. More often than not their positions are not as guarnateed as they would like to think.....