‘Yes to Europe, No to Climate Change’ - Green Party to launch European election campaign

Green Party leaders, Sian Berry and Jonathan Bartley outside their party's headquarters in south east London. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA. - Credit: PA Archive/PA Images

Voters at the European elections should ignore the Liberal Democrats and Change UK and back the the Green Party to be ‘tough on Brexit and the causes of Brexit’, the party’s co-leader has declared.

After a sensational set of results in last week’s English local elections, when Greens gained 185 council seats, the party is hopeful of improving on the three MEPs it secured in 2014.

The party claims to have had a new member joining up every three minutes since the election result.

Speaking at the Greens’ European election campaign launch in Islington, co-leader Jonathan Bartley said: “Every MEP elected from our brilliant team of candidates will be a commanding voice calling for what this country needs now: a people’s vote.

“Politics is paralysed, people are ready for something new.

A poster for the Green Party promoting a pro-EU agenda. Image: Green Party. – Credit: Archant

“We need to go back to the people to get politics moving again.”

Bartley, who shares the leadership of the Greens with Sian Berry, said that while two other parties were also campaigning for a second referendum, the vote was unlikely to “split” because of the proportional representation electoral system used at the European elections.

“There are three Remain parties, there are four Leave parties. That’s the way this election is broken down,” he said.

“The European elections are run under PR. The danger of splitting the vote is significantly less in these elections than it would be under a first-past-the-post Westminster election.

“Polls are all over the place at the moment. Some put us in the lead, some don’t.

“But if you take the aggregate polls, we’re right up there.

“At the last election, we got more seats than the Lib Dems.”