22 June 2023

In May the H&ERGP issued the following press release:

What might have been?’ is the question being asked by Green Party in the East Riding after the local council elections earlier in May.

At the local party’s meeting in Beverley on Tuesday, members heard how the East Riding elections were an opportunity missed and a tragedy for progressive politics.

Local party co-Coordinator Julia Brown said:

“Despite the massive collapse of their vote, both locally and nationally, the Conservatives ended up running East Riding Council.

“We looked at the local elections results from ERYC. It’s interesting, that for the sake of 151 votes, the Liberal Democrats would have ended up as the largest party:

Bridlington Central - Liberal Democrats missed by 3
Cottingham North - missed by 13
Mid Holderness - missed by 33
South Hunsley - 2nd Liberal Democrats missed by 102

“That would have given the Liberal Democrats 26 and the Tories 25.”

Julia Brown added:

“But that’s only part of the story. It’s clear that if the Liberal Democrats had helped a ‘progressive alliance’ with other parties (Labour, Yorkshire Party, Greens) and some independents, that alliance could be running the council, not the Tories. Not only would the Liberal Democrats have won more seats but others would have too. For example, Peter Hemmerman of the Yorkshire Party lost Wolds Weighton by 352 while the Liberal Democrats polled 586, 521 and 418, which meant he failed to win the seat.

“When the Liberal Democrats were famously trawling for a second candidate in the South Hunsley ward, we raised the idea but that was summarily dismissed.

“It’s a tragedy because I don’t think the opposition parties have had a better chance of knocking the Tories from running East Riding Council for a long time.

“In contrast, in Canterbury, Hertfordshire and Surrey, amongst other places, Liberal Democrats and Greens, and the Labour Party too, came together before the election to try to avoid splitting the progressive vote in order to overcome Conservative rule in town halls and had huge success.

“The Green Party believes in cooperative, collaborative politics. We hope to work with other parties on single issue campaigns and, of course, in the run up to future elections.”

End.

Notes:

Progressive Alliances: