9th Jun 2009

Green vote surges in York

However, we were hugely disappointed to narrowly miss out on taking the last seat across the region from the BNP.

The Greens saw a huge increase in their percentage vote across the City of York, gaining 13.8% compared to 9.2% at the last European elections in 2004. The Conservatives gained the highest vote across the city, with the Liberal Democrats, Labour, Greens and UKIP all within 4% of each other in the contest for second place. The BNP came a very distant sixth, with less than 5% of the vote. Conservative and Lib Dem support is concentrated in the York Outer parliamentary seat and Green and Labour support in York Central.

The Labour vote collapsed by 8% with the Greens as the main beneficiaries. Andy Chase, Parliamentary Candidate for York Central said, "It's clear that the Greens are the only party to have built up any real momentum to challenge New Labour's hold on this seat at the next General Election."

The Greens also gained three percentage points across the whole of Yorkshire and the Humber, but unfortunately not by quite enough to prevent the BNP from gaining a seat.

Andy Chase said, "It's hugely disappointing to see the BNP grab a regional seat by such a narrow margin, despite being decisively rejected by the people of York. We were only 1% away from getting enough votes to beat them and give Yorkshire a Green MEP instead of a BNP one. However, we will go on working hard to provide a decent alternative to the main parties."

Full result across York:

Conservatives 28.6% up 0.1% from 2004
Lib Dem 17.5% down 0.7%
Labour 15.6% down 8.3%
Green 13.8% up 4.6%
UKIP 13.7% up 0.6%
BNP 4.8% up 1.4%
No other party gained more than 2%