Newham Green Party announces MP candidates as shock poll finds party surging into second place in all three constituencies

• Greens reveal MP candidates amid a stunning surge to second place, topping the Tories and Lib Dems.
• Green Party champions open selection process contrasting with Labour's suspended local parties, ensuring candidates truly represent constituents' voices.
• Former Green Party Leader Natalie Bennett: "More and more people are looking for actual change. I'm confident we're going to elect the next generation of Green MPs at the General Election."
• Joe Hudson-Small, candidate for Stratford and Bow: "Green policies will protect our planet, reverse decades of economic inequality, and help people who need it most. More Green MPs in Parliament will be transformative for our country (and the world) and it is time to make it happen."

Today at its launch party in East London, Newham Green Party has announced its candidates for each of the three Newham constituencies. This comes as a shock poll from Find Out Now has revealed that the Green Party is now in second place in every constituency in Newham[1], well above the Conservatives or Liberal Democrats. The party also came second in the 2022 local elections and elected Newham’s only opposition councillors for the first time in 16 years.

Natalie Bennett, former Green Party Leader and Member of the House of Lords, announced the candidates to party members and supporters who assembled in the Royal Docks to celebrate the launch of the party’s General Election campaign. Natalie said: “The Green Party has had a real injection of energy and support in both Newham and Tower Hamlets in the last few years since achieving that breakthrough result in the 2022 local elections. This excellent set of candidates represent the real change that Newham and Tower Hamlets voters are crying out for.“

The poll was conducted using the gold standard MRP polling technique to calculate support for each party in each constituency in the country. In 2017, this technique allowed YouGov to be the only pollster to accurately call the 2017 General Election[2] as a ‘hung parliament’. The poll also found the new Stratford and Bow constituency to be the strongest constituency for the Green Party in London, and eighth in the whole country, at a massive 19%, up from a notional 4% in 2019.

The Green Party proudly chooses candidates using an open and competitive selection process where any member can put themselves forward and all members get a vote. This is contrasted to the local Labour Party, which has suspended all local democracy in Newham for over three years now, leaving local people with no say in who their candidates are[3]. The party is also proud that all three candidates live in their constituency.

Reacting to her selection as parliamentary candidate for the East Ham constituency, Rosie Pearce said: “I'm pleased to be selected to represent the Green Party in East Ham in the upcoming general election. It's important East Ham has the opportunity to vote Green at this upcoming election to champion real action on inequality and climate change”. Rosie lives in Upton Park within the constituency and works in health training, saying this “has afforded me valuable insights into the reforms required to enhance local healthcare access”. She is also passionate about education, saying her “work with universities for the past six years has underscored the significance of ensuring true equitable access to education, including  early years education”. 

Joe Hudson-Small, who is standing for the new Stratford and Bow constituency and lives in Stratford, said: “People deserve a real choice in this election and our message is one of hope and optimism, not U-turns and broken promises. We’re hearing that many residents are fed up with Keir Starmer’s Labour Party and they want an MP who will support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza”. Joe is a “committed activist for affordable housing and accessible public transport” and is also the party’s candidate for the City and East London Assembly constituency, which the Stratford and Bow constituency is within. The Find Out Now poll suggests Newham’s Muslim community is abandoning Labour to support a party willing to stand up against the genocide taking place in Gaza.

The new constituency of Stratford and Bow covers areas in both Newham and Tower Hamlets, and Joe joins Tower Hamlets Green Party’s existing candidates Cllr Nathalie Bienfait standing for Poplar and Limehouse, and Elizabeth Waight who is standing in Bethnal Green and Stepney. The constituency has already elected three Green councillors, with Cllr Bienfait representing Bow West and Cllr Nate Higgins and Cllr Danny Keeling representing Stratford Olympic Park. Joe said: “Stratford and Bow may be one of our best opportunities in London and our local Green councillors have already shown residents what voting Green can do for them.”

Rob Callender, the party’s candidate for Mayor of Newham in 2022 and who is now standing for the West Ham and Beckton constituency, said: “I'm delighted to have been selected as candidate for the constituency of West Ham and Beckton, living myself in the Royal Docks at North Woolwich. I’m passionate about our Green Party values and believe that there can be no climate, environmental and ecological justice without social, racial and economic justice too”. Contrasting his party to the incumbent Labour Party, Rob added: “A Keir Starmer Labour government, almost indistinguishable from the Tories - backtracking on their environmental, climate and social promises - will need robust scrutiny to keep them both in check. The Green Party will do that and more”.

Commenting after the announcement and reflecting on the national contest, Natalie Bennett said: ”The country under Tory rule is in crisis and Labour is promising nothing that will make a difference to the millions who are suffering. More and more people are looking for actual change, and that’s why the Green Party is rightly standing in every constituency for the first time ever to give voters that real choice. I'm confident we're going to elect the next generation of Green MPs at the General Election”.

ENDS

Full bios for each of the candidates are available at https://newham.greenparty.org.uk/ge2024/ 

1. https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/blogs/ec_vipoll_20240215.html
2. https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/18355-how-yougovs-election-model-compares-final-result 
3. https://www.newhamrecorder.co.uk/news/21413087.newham-labour-slammed-party-suspends-east-ham-west-ham-clps/ 

Notes for editors:

• The party’s parliamentary candidates are Rosie Pearce for the East Ham constituency, Joe Hudson-Small for the Stratford and Bow constituency, and Rob Callender for the West Ham and Beckton constituency. 
• Stratford Olympic Park ward, which is within the Stratford and Bow constituency, had the highest average Green vote of any ward in London at the most recent local elections – https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1k1JjVuQ1TidmDa2YyDsD8XfiQafa596NPAudSNNlPZQ/edit?usp=sharing
• The MRP poll from Find Out Now puts the Green Party on 19% in Stratford and Bow, 18% in East Ham and 12% in West Ham and Beckton, which puts the party in second place and above the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in all three constituencies. The full results in the three constituencies are: