West Midlands Green Party

European Parliamentary Elections June 2004

- West Midlands Region

Green Party Candidates:

Chris Lennard(Worcestershire)

Felicity Norman (Leominster)

David Wall (Lichfield)

Barney Smith (Birmingham)

Tom Hellberg (Coventry)

Damon Hoppe (Stone, Staffs) 

Rebecca Rosseff (Hereford)

Green Party vote in West Midlands 73,991  -  vote increased by 49% on previous European election in 1999

Green vote in Worcestershire -

Bromsgrove             1524  (5.71%)

Malvern Hills            2014  (8.48%)

Redditch                   1033  (4.81%)

Worcester                1925  (7.25%)

Wychavon                1980  (5.92%)

Wyre Forest            1750  (6.10%)

Total                      10,226  (6.37%)

How they voted in Herefordshire -

Name of Party	Number of votes	Percentage of vote (%)
Conservative	17,501	35
UKIP	10,752	21.5
Lib Dem	8,908	17.8
Green	5,344	10.6
Labour	4,835	9.6
BNP	1,224	2.4
Pensioners	696	1.3
Common Good	303	0.6
Respect	228	0.4

The Herefordshire part of the European vote (10.6 per cent for the Greens) was the best in the region, polling one per cent better than the Labour Party in the county (see table). Had this been repeated across the constituency, the Green Party would have had their first MEP in the region. 

The UK used proportional voting for the second time (the first was at the last European election in 1999). The Greens and the other parties had the same ‘pitch’ to play – the constituency was a huge chunk of the midlands covering 59 Westminster constituencies including the Birmingham conurbation and less urban Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire. But the goalposts were moved - the Greens fought for 7 seats instead of 8 this time; the threshold for getting elected was higher.

 Candidates David Wall & Damon Hoppe

 Felicity Norman        and         Barney Smith

UKIP won its first European seat in this region, along with Con (3 seats), Lab (2), LibDems (1). The Green Party did not win a seat but the Green vote increased by 49 per cent on the 1999 result (73,991 votes compared to 49,440). Their percentage of the total poll was a fraction down but stayed over the 5 per cent mark (5.15 compared to 5.83 in 1999). In Birmingham, where there were also local elections, almost 9 per cent of voters were prepared to vote Green when asked to give one vote out of three.

Despite the many disappointments the Greens have a solid vote that is steadily growing. This was the picture across the country. They got no additional MEPs but their two existing MEPs bounced back stronger. Jean Lambert in London almost doubled her vote with 159,000 votes and Caroline Lucas (South East) with more than 173,000, upped hers by 60,000. There were some noteworthy successes at local government level. In Oxford the Greens gained 4 seats resulting in a city council with 7 Greens and no Tories. Norwich Greens held 3 seats and added 2 more. People like the way Green councillors perform and want more.