The Greens are right not to stand in this election

At our members’ meeting, I voted against standing in Hastings and Rye on this occasion. My overwhelming priority is to do everything I can to avoid a Conservative government. Successive Tory governments have laid waste to our public services, failed to care for the most vulnerable members of our society and put action for the climate crisis on the back burner. Regretfully, until our voting system is fit for purpose, the only way of voting out the Tories in some constituencies is for smaller parties to stand down and for people to ‘lend’ their vote by voting tactically. In the 2017 election, Amber Rudd won by only 346 votes, so every vote will count on 12 December.

In a future general election, I look forward to campaigning for a Green MP in Hastings. In the meantime, Hastings Green Party are holding Labour to account locally and I am putting my energy into getting our first Green councillors elected to the borough council in May 2020. I hope that those who support our standing down in the General Election to get rid of the Tories, will vote for us in May.