News / Politics
Green Party announce general election candidates for Bristol
A former Lib Dem candidate for Bristol mayor is among the Green Party’s five prospective MPs for the next general election.
Mary Page, now wearing a green rather than an orange rosette, joins Carla Denyer, Jai Breitnauer, Lorraine Francis and Naseem Talukdar contesting Bristol’s five parliamentary constituencies that will be on the electoral map the next time the UK goes to the polls.
But despite this announcement, the Greens will be throwing the majority of their national resources at just one seat, Bristol Central, as their co-leader Denyer attempts to unseat Thangam Debbonaire.
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Bristol’s five Green Party general election candidates; left to right: Jai Breitnauer, Lorraine Francis, Carla Denyer, Naseem Talukdar and Mary Page – photo: Green Party
Page, the Green candidate in Bristol North West, ran for mayor for the Lib Dems in 2020, pledging to scrap the role she was running for, before standing down later that year but then playing a leading role in the referendum that will see Bristol ditch the mayoral model and move to a committee system from May 2024.
Bristol South candidate Breitnauer is a mum of two, small business owner, education equity campaigner and foundation manager at Mendip Access Adventure Foundation. She previously worked in the wine and spirits industry in New Zealand.
For Bristol East, the candidate is Naseem Talukdar, founder of the Feed The Homeless charity and CEO of Projects Against Plastic.
And for Bristol North East, the new seat that Marvin Rees failed to get selected for by the Labour Party, the candidate is Lorraine Francis, a social worker and Green Party councillor for Eastville.
Carla Denyer hopes to become only the second Green MP – photo: Jon Craig
Speaking at the big reveal of the candidates in Future Leap on Gloucester Road, Denyer said: “Here, in Bristol, we are unique. We are the Green Party’s best chance anywhere in the country to get another Green MP in parliament.
“Neither Tories nor Labour have a vision for the country, or a positive narrative of aspirational political change and a genuine hope for the future.
“The Greens are different. We are the party that sees that a better future is possible, and has the policies to get us there.”
Main photo: Green Party
Read next:
- Bristol to elect Green MP, polling experts predict
- Marvin Rees says the way Carla Denyer does politics is ‘demoralising’
- Former Lib Dem mayoral candidate joins Green Party
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