Four Green MPs absolutely realistic – co-leaderon October 6, 2023 at 12:00 pm

Winning four seats at the next election is “absolutely realistic” despite pressure from Labour, the Green Party’s co-leader has said.

Carla Denyer told the BBC the plan was “ambitious,” but her party was confident after “record-breaking” gains in this year’s English local elections.

The Greens have only ever had one MP, Caroline Lucas, whose Brighton Pavilion seat is a target for Labour.

Ms Denyer will open her party’s annual conference in Brighton on Friday.

The conference could be the final pre-election gathering for an party that has become an increasingly effective campaigning force.

The Green Party of England and Wales had its best-ever results in May’s local elections across England, winning 241 seats and taking overall control of a council for the first time – in Mid Suffolk.

The success was “the latest in a line of record-breaking results”, according to Ms Denyer.

“In the last four elections, we’ve more than quadrupled our local election council representation,” she added, giving her party hope they could repeat the feat at the general election, expected next year.

Green co-leader Adrian Ramsay said his party was “open” to striking deals with other “progressive” parties at the election, to help achieve its goals.

But, also speaking to the BBC, he added there had been “no interest so far” in the idea from either Labour or the Liberal Democrats.

At the last general election in 2019, the Green Party formed an anti-Brexit electoral pact with the Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru, with the parties agreeing not to stand against each other in dozens of seats.

Ms Lucas, one of the party’s best-known figures and its former leader, is stepping down from Parliament after 13 years as an MP.

In a speech with Mr Ramsay, Ms Denyer will set out a target of not just keeping Ms Lucas’ Brighton Pavilion seat, but winning the newly created seats of Bristol Central, Waveney Valley and North Herefordshire.

Ms Denyer told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme “we think it’s absolutely realistic”.

In the local elections, the party’s campaign focused heavily on housing – a theme which the co-leaders will pick up again in their speech later.

Ahead of the conference, the Greens announced plans to give renters the means to force landlords to insulate their homes.

Ms Denyer said the party would “guarantee everyone can afford a warm secure and affordable home”.

Under the plans, tenants would be able to insist that landlords take up low-interest government-backed loans to carry out the works.

In his BBC interview, Mr Ramsay rejected the idea the policy might push landlords out of the market, adding that they would benefit from lower borrowing costs to boost the value of own homes through improvement works.

The party is also facing some financial pressures, and is proposing to increase membership fees by 50% at this conference to raise funds.