This time next week Keir and Victoria Starmer should have unpacked their belongings in Downing Street, as the new Prime Minister starts the mammoth task of trying to put this country back together again.
After 14 years of rule- breaking and chaos, the alternative does not bear thinking about. But despite being a card-carrying member of the Labour Party on and off since 1995, in a few pockets across the country I am also hoping for a smattering of green. The Green party has a good chance of winning two seats in this election – Brighton Pavilion, where former party leader Caroline Lucas is standing down, and Bristol Central. But it is in two traditionally Conservative areas that the Greens need your help.
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The rural seat of North Herefordshire has been held by the Tories for more than 100 years but polls suggest they have a fight on their hands. One of the UK’s most beautiful but threatened rivers, the Wye, runs through it. This special area of conservation is suffering due to its location at the centre of intensive poultry production involving over 20 million birds.
We hear a lot about water companies and overflow of human sewage, but animal muck is causing a bigger problem. It’s one of the issues Green candidate Ellie Chowns promises to tackle if elected on Thursday. Disenchantment with the Tories in another part of rural England has put Green party co-leader Adrian Ramsay ahead in the polls for the newly created Waveney Valley seat on the Norfolk-Suffolk border. Here farmers and local communities are looking for better ways to restore nature.
Over a cup of tea last week, Caroline Lucas told me: “Labour is going to win – and win big. We want the next government to succeed and we want its ambitions and achievements to be bold. This is the task of our next generation of Green MPs, to push Labour in government to be bolder, braver, and more ambitious – and to put new issues on the agenda. It is going to need every sensible voice possible to undo all of the damage of this reckless Conservative Government.”
She’s right. No one expects the Greens to form the new government but we do need them to hold Labour to account to ensure the climate crisis is dealt with the urgency it requires. This is going to be ever more important if Reform wins seats and the Tories launch further to the right – continuing to politicise the green agenda to win cheap support. If you live in Waveney Valley and North Herefordshire and you want to evict the Tories – and see more environmental policies pushed in Westminster – this is the most effective way to use your vote on Thursday.