The Greens have reacted to Labour’s selection of Tom Gray over Eddie Izzard as the party’s candidate in Brighton Pavilion at the next general election.
Sian Berry, who hopes to become the next Green member of the House of Commons, said: “For us, the work to keep a clear and powerful Green voice in Parliament has been going strong for months and will continue now we can put a face to Labour’s campaign.
“Every day I go out and knock on doors, people are telling me they are proud to have voted Green for over a decade and that they are desperate to see a change in government.
“They still want to be represented by someone who will stand up for them and not have to follow the party line.
“We know from the polls that there will probably be hundreds of Labour backbenchers in Westminster after the next general election who will be told how to vote by their leader.
“For 13 years, Brighton has voted for something better than that and they say they will vote for me because they trust me to carry on Caroline Lucas’s excellent record reflecting Brighton’s unique voice in Parliament.”
Caroline Lucas, Britain’s first and only Green who plans to stand down at the next election, said: “Having spent the last 13 years talking to residents in Brighton, I know that they desperately want to get rid of this cruel and heartless Tory government.
“Sian has the experience, dedication and conviction to make sure that Brighton Pavilion gets heard in Parliament.
“There is no possibility of a Conservative winning in this seat and we don’t need another Labour MP in Brighton who is told what to do by their increasingly disappointing leader.
“We need someone who will stand up for our community, make sure nature has a voice and hold the next government to account. She has the skills and the support to get this done.”
Is this woman from Brighton or has she been shipped in? Also, what job did she or does she do?
None of the main party candidates live in Brighton Pavilion constituency, they have all been “shipped in”. Some from further afield than others, but still not residents of the constituency.
Sian’s political history is on her Wiki page, she is a very capable and experienced politician.
Does her wiki mention all the Green transgender shenanigans? Wasn’t the delightful Ms Berry once aligned with Aimee Challenor and her father who was convicted of rape?
Don’t you think the Brighton electorate should be made aware of all those skeletons rattling in Sian’s closet?
You are welcome to make any allegations you like, under your real name, so that they can be examined by Ms Berry and if necessary defended.
it is easy to look up and renders Ms Berry unelectable.
So, Tom lives in Brighton, but not Pavilion.
Of course – That makes all the difference!
I hear the sound of a barrel being scraped
In my view, Pavilion embodies Brighton, Hove epitomizes Brighton, and Kemptown is quintessentially Brighton. Residents of Brighton typically traverse these areas regularly, so the suggestion that individuals residing near these locales lack a genuine connection to Brighton strikes me as incongruent.
Tom Gray lives in Brighton -for 25 years I believe
Unlike shipped in Londoner Sian Berry
London is 50 miles away. There is no general custom that MPs homes are in their constituency. See Blair 🙄. Basically just Grow Up.
fwiw several credible candidates – female and actually in Pavillion – were blocked by the right wing Regional Labour regime.
This obsession with having a local candidate is just bizarre tbh. Historically it has not necessarily been the case from any political perspective. Tony Benn represented a Bristol constituency the Chesterfield. Blair was MP for Sedgefield. An MP is not a local councillor
But if localism is important to you or others then you should be aware that several good candidates from the constituency were blocked by the regional labour party administration. The regional admin hijacked control of the selection, allowing only right wing candidates to be put forward to be voted for by local members.
Tom Gray is from Brighton – not Pavilion true but he does live in the city, which is more than Ms Berry.
As I said, not from the constituency and “shipped in”. Not as far as Ms Berry, but still shipped in – Mr Gray is hoping to represent a constituency that he does not live in.
Tom Gray moved to Brighton in 1999 . So, you are telling lies
Are you saying, Jane, that Tom Gray lives within the boundaries of the Brighton Pavilion constituency?
Is Lucas still the MP? She ignores letters and emails from constituents and never asks questions at PMQ; does she actually still live in Brighton?
Maybe she is trying to put distance between her uu and her incapable and incompetent Marxist Green ex-council…
Your nose grows ever longer by the second
Yes, Ms Lucas lives around the corner from me, I can assure you that she lives within the boundary of the constituency.
Given Jane is unable to confirm the same about Mr Gray, let’s assume that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.
I said Tom moved to Brighton in 1999.
That is factual. You are trying to manipulate the truth and failing miserably. Your efforts are frankly laughable and you are making yourself look like a fool as well as a liar.
We all know that the Greens lie and cheat – that’s why they got such a good kicking in May.
Why not tell us about Sian’s dealings with Aimee Challenor? Those are factual too.
And as you’ve previously confirmed, Jane, “not Pavilion”. That is factual, none of the main party candidates live within the boundaries of the constituency that they hope to represent.
You’ve been offered a chance to show how this is a lie, and not only failed to do so, but have confirmed it to in fact be the truth.
So how long has Sian Berry lived in the city of Brighton and Hove?
Many MPs do not live in their constituency. Tom Gray does live in the city and has done so for a number of years. He is familiar with the area – that is good enough for me!
The article makes an extremely important point that Labour MPs are told what to do by their (increasingly disappointing) leader. The Green voice in Brighton has been reflecting Brighton’s unique voice in Parliament.
All main parties are whipped and all are now almost interchangeable. There is no ‘unique’ Green voice.
There’s literally one Green MP, it can’t get any more unique than that!
You assume the whole party won’t be whipping her to go one way or another? The thing is, one MP does not have a lot of power to facilitate much change at all.
Are you honestly saying the Greens might kick their one MP out of the party?
What’s more likely, is that wouldn’t put someone in place who’d go against party lines. They’d put someone in place who bleeds Green, so to speak. Wouldn’t even get to the proposed situation of kicking someone out, but if need be, yes, yes they would.
You clearly don’t understand what the term “whip” means in UK parliamentary terms.
New new Labour are a carbon copy of the Tories. Let’s keep Brighton unique and have a green voice in parliament
Tom Grey is on the Blairite wing of the New New Labour party. The last thing that our city needs are more Starmeroid drones
Difficult to argue against that.
Also instrumental in damaging Labour via the ironically named LAAS.
Greens are just Conservatives who pretend to care..
Where d’you get that idea? Green policies are to the left of Labou. Which is why i vote for them.
Tom Gray only ever seems to have been an ‘activist’ in seeking better conditions for popular musicians – a worthy aim, perhaps, but one that rests entirely on self-interest. He’s no Billy Bragg, that’s for sure.
Brighton has always been distinctive in having the UK’s only Green MP, and a very able one at that. I hope Sian Berry continues Brighton’s reputation as a city that does things differently.
That’s the problem – Sian Berry isn’t very able, in fact she is a serial failure
I agree with you here Tom, she has had a lot of failures in trying to get elected in London, and has lost by a large margin each time.
Is she not currently a London AM ?
That’s pretty unfair – his campaign was about musicians without large deals who relied on touring etc and ensuring they were supported through Covid and got royalty payments that were fair.
Sian Berry will certainly have a fight on her hands. In her favour Green votes held up better in central Brigjhton wards at the local elections and Caroline Lucas had a very healthy majority. Against her is that the Labour candidate actually lives in Brighton and Hove and has done since 1999. Also just how toxic the voters consider the previous Green administration, (yes it’s nothing to do with the MP but it will weigh in voters minds). It will be a very tight race.
Indeed, I suspect it will be a hotly contested seat. Green’s history in the area is certainly going to be an attack line, and her helicopter status is going to work against her, particularly since the latest local politics have really shown residents care that local people represent them.
On the other hand, as the quintessential Green seat for the party, they’ll be throwing everything at this.
I was there yesterday when Tom was elected
I was feeling sad for Eddie Izzard
Way too much homophobia in the labour party
Tom wasn’t elected. Just chosen to be the party’s candidate for the election.
Homophobia ? Where in LP ? Do you mean at the selection meeting ?
And just to check, you realise that Izzard is (now) self defining as a transwoman. Not a homosexual . So what’s the connection with homophobia ?
Nothing to do with me, because I live in an adjacent constituency with an absolutely dreadful MP (not Peter Kyle – work it out for yourselves), but why exactly is there this apparently, and arguably totally irrelevant, fanatical Green strip down the middle of the City? Makes no sense whatsoever to me, but hopefully someone might attempt an explanation.
As for John Walker’s persistent and oft-repeated tiresome comments about where candidates live, (and Mr Gray, the Labour candidate, has lived in the City for very many years, albeit not in Pavilion exactly, but I do think he knows where it is, can get there easily, maybe even on his own two legs, and has been pictured very recently by the Palace Pier highlighting issues with the quality – or very lamentable lack of it – of the seawater there), how about the situation in Kemptown and Queen’s Park wards with the two councillors who seemingy – and I stress ‘seemingly’ – were never entitled to stand in the first place. Allegedly the police are investigating, but nothing whatsoever has been heard from them.
Ultimately, effective and visible councillors are more important to residents and their everyday concerns/issues than who the MP is. I cannot speak for QP, but in Kemptown we have one councillor suspended from Lab and under investigation (a largely invisible and useless person who is only out for herself) and another cast-off from Hove, who apparently was eligible to stand, but has been almost equally invisible and useless. That is much more important to residents than any very silly repetitive and totally semantic argument about where Mr Gray’s abode actually is (and it does seem to be in B&H, not Leicester, Bexhill or even Timbuktoo). End of argument in my opinion.
The Kemptown councillors you mention were both selected by Labour’s National Executive Committee, as was Tim Gray, ie, parachuted in.
At least with the Greens, the local party and MP have had a say in who is standing.
In all honesty, anything that replaces the current national government would be an improvement. A hatstand could do a better job than Sunak.
And would be able to hold hats!
Don’t know the detail of GP candidate selection. But yes LP candidates allowed to stand by command of the SE region administration. Obvs under NEC control. BP CLP excluded from process and awkward members suspended or expelled. Disproportionately so wrt Black and Jewish members.
Councils spend Council tax money which is paid by residents and businesses for the provision of services. Any party that could be hoodwinked by snake oil salesmen into aggreeing to foot the rising bill of 50 million pounds plus, for a ‘cock-up ring on a stick’ on the seafront, and subsequently decimating local services to cover it, has lost sight of their purpose, which is to provide and manage local services, not to slither up a greasy pole into parliament.
i360 was a blunder, no-one is disputing that. However, it is important to note that is only partially the reason for local services suffering. The other part is that councils are having to offer more, with less money caused by central government mismanagement.
Yes they do spend Council Tax receipts. But for clarity that accounts for only approx 20% of budget. Main source of funds is central govt
Sian berry lives in Pavilion has moved here to fight and win the seat and is endorsed by caroline lucas
Well, she can’t fight and lose the seat, silly! An endorsement from her own party isn’t something worth mentioning, party members will, of course, vote for their own. Particularly if there is no other choice, like in this case.
Sian needs to look a bit older. Hair, dress, general appearance. She needs more heft – talk more slowly , with more authority. No need to be smiling all the time. No need to present herself as following in Caroline’s footsteps.Needs to talk green green green – not Green Party but Climate change Green. George Mombiot is a great model for her. He says it how it is.
So you’re advocating she presents herself as a fake persona to her actual self?
Parody ?
The sainted Sian lives in Tufnell Park in North London so will presumably flip a property if elected. Stood down as co leader of the greens and is in conflict with one of its largest members’ groups amid a dispute over the party’s stance on sex and gender.
Senior members of Green Party Women (GPW) claim the group was “disaffiliated” because of their promotion of “gender-critical views”.
A Green Party spokesperson said it suspended GPW for procedural reasons. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There are divisions within the Green Party about its approach to trans rights.
The party’s official position is that it supports transgender people and backs making it easier to change legal sex via self-determination.
But there are long-running tensions with members who hold gender-critical beliefs, which includes that a person’s sex cannot be changed.
So the less bonkers division of the greens has been cast out by the likes of Sian. And you still want her as your Mp?