SIAN BERRY ELECTED LONDONWIDE ASSEMBLY MEMBER “Green party reaching a tipping point in Lambeth”
Green Party mayoral candidate for London Sian Berry picked up the most ‘second preference’ votes in three of the four constituencies covering Crystal Palace.
Sian – the only Mayoral candidate to visit the occupation at Carnegie library on Herne Hill – came top in Lambeth and Southwark (43,067 second preferences); Bexley and Bromley (28,960 second preferences) and Greenwich and Lewisham (35,967 second preferences). In Croydon and Sutton she scored 27,618 second preferences with Caroline Pidgeon (Liberal Democrats) scoring 29,441.
Sian Berry has now been elected to the Greater London Authority as a Londonwide member.
In a statement the Green Party said it was celebrating its best ever result in the London elections – and that a ‘tipping point’ in Green Party support is being reached in Lambeth.
It follows a breakthrough in the local elections in 2014, when Lambeth Green Party came second in the borough gaining more votes than the Conservatives and Lib Dems. There were also huge swings to the Green Party in Lambeth at the General Election in 2015.
The momentum continued at the 2016 London elections, say the Green party. Across Lambeth and Southwark, the Green Party’s Rashid Nix was the only candidate from the major parties whose vote share increased.
The Green Party vote went up by over two per cent, with a record 25,793 votes for the candidate from Brixton. The vote shares for the Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative candidates all declined.
Green Party candidate Rashid Nix said: “The Green Party appears to be reaching a tipping point in Lambeth. “There is a groundswell of support for the stand that the Green Party is taking to defend housing, save libraries and make our air cleaner.
“The vote is also a reflection that the Greens are representing local people against a Labour council that isn’t listening. “Lambeth Labour appears to be more concerned with opposing Jeremy Corbyn than supporting local people.
“Whether it be library closures, destruction of local communities and people’s homes, or a failure to do the most basic things to improve air quality such as issue fines for engine idling around schools, local people are realising that Lambeth Labour isn’t working for them.”
Of the votes for the city, UKIP gained two seats while both the Conservatives and Lib Dems lost one each.
The 11 members voted in are:
Kemi Badenoch, Conservative
Shaun Bailey, Conservative
Sian Berry, Green
Andrew Boff, Conservative
Tom Copley, Labour
Nicky Gavron, Labour
David Kurten, UKIP
Caroline Pidgeon, Lib Dems
Caroline Russell, Green
Fiona Twycross, Labour
Peter Whittle, UKIP