Election results: Green Party's Caroline Lucas increases majority
- Published
Caroline Lucas: "This election wasn't even necessary"
The Green Party's Caroline Lucas has been re-elected to her Brighton Pavilion seat with a greater majority.
The former party leader, who is its sole MP, defeated her closest Labour rival by almost 20,000 votes, increasing her majority by nearly 5%.
She gained 33,151 votes compared with 13,211 to Labour's candidate Adam Imanpour.
Ms Lucas said she was "incredibly proud" of the result but also "deeply angry" at a "broken" political system.
Millions 'locked out'
She said: "I feel incredibly proud that my majority has increased because it demonstrates that Brighton Pavilion continues to believe in compassion, justice and a bigger future.
"That matters so much when the status quo in this country is intolerable - and when we are now on course for it to become even more so.
"As well as proud I feel deeply angry, too, that our political system is so badly broken and is still letting individuals and our country down so badly. It has been doing so for decades.
"It has locked out millions and ignored their voices for years. And it's our children and the climate that will pay the highest price of all.
"This may well have been a Brexit election but it was also the climate election and I am determined to make this the climate parliament."
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The Green Party joined the Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru in an electoral pact last month, which saw candidates stepping down in certain areas in order to bolster the chances of a Remain-backing candidate being elected.
The Green Party has been highly critical of the First Past the Post (FPTP) majority electoral system, whereby it is not the number of votes that matters, but the number of MPs chosen to sit in Parliament.
Ms Lucas said in a video posted on Twitter on Friday that the electoral system is "rotten to the core".
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"These are dark times but the night is always darkest just before the dawn," Ms Lucas said.
"This election has been called historic for many reasons already but we're making history all the time.
"The distress, anger and sadness millions of us feel this morning about the future could be the catalyst for transforming our politics for good, forever and that's how we make this election the start of something truly historic."
She stressed the importance of taking action on climate change over the next 18 months, but raised concerns that the UK government will continue to "wrangle" over Brexit instead.
Jonathan Bartley, Green Party co-leader, said: "We are so proud of everything that Caroline has achieved in Parliament over the last nine years. She will now continue to lead the fight against climate chaos."
- Published13 December 2019
