Caroline Lucas has held Brighton Pavilion. Lucas, who was elected as the first and only Green MP in 2010, added 11 per cent to her vote share, receiving 22,871 votes to Labour’s 14,904.
It looks like the Green council’s problems in Brighton did nothing to diminish her popularity.
Lucas called the night “historic”, and said “the politics of fear triumphed over the politics of hope”.
She added that this general election has been the “Greens’ most successful election campaign ever, with almost a million people voting Green.”
Indeed, the party has had a good night. Although it narrowly missed out on their second target Bristol West, their candidate Darren Hall still received the largest swing in the constituency’s electoral history (23 per cent).
The party leader, Natalie Bennett, went from fourth place (in 2010) to third in Holborn & St Pancras, with her votes rocketing from 1,480 (in 2010) to 7,013.
The Greens came second in four seats – quite an achievement for a party that has never come second before.
As for the Greens in Scotland, a senior source in the Scottish party tells me they are looking ahead with confidence to the Scottish Parliament elections next year: “We’ve focused on giving our huge number of new members a positive taste of campaigning, ahead of next year’s Holyrood election. We know that’s really the one that can pay off for us.”
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