Greens in battle for third place in Euro election

New poll on eve of election points to record equalling Green vote of 15% - ahead of the Lib Dems

A poll to be published tomorrow, the day before the European elections, suggests the battle for third place will be between the Green Party, the LibDems and UKIP.

In the new poll, conducted by ComRes (1), the Greens have overtaken the Lib Dems for the first time since 1989. The poll suggests the Greens may be about to equal their historic 1989 Euro-election vote of 15%.

The poll shows support for the parties as follows:

Conservative: 24%
Labour: 22%
UKIP: 17%
Green 15%
Lib Dems 14%
BNP 2%


If the poll proves accurate, the Greens could win seats in the North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, West Midlands, East Midlands, South West and Eastern regions plus Scotland, as well as holding existing seats in London and the South East. The Greens may even scoop up a second seat in the South East, with Brighton councillor Keith Taylor joining party leader Caroline Lucas, who was first elected in 1999.

Last Sunday's Telegraph/ICM poll showed the Greens on 11%, ahead of UKIP nationally for the first time in the campaign. The Sunday Telegraph suggested that "the resurgent Greens" might win eight seats.

And in an earlier Green Party/YouGov poll, 34% of respondents said they would either definitely vote Green or consider voting Green if they knew more about the party.

Eastern Region Green Party Spokesperson Cllr. James Abbott said

"This is not all protest vote. We believe our manifesto for a million jobs, aimed at tackling the recession and the climate crisis at the same time, has probably struck a chord with a lot of people.

Voters also know that this is an election held using proportional representation, where every vote counts. There has been some very misleading material being delivered to voters by other parties in Eastern region prominently claiming the Greens cannot win, but using general election results to try and back the claim. Such comparisons are irrelevant in a PR election, and anyway, voters are clearly set to give the establishment parties a tough lesson following the MPs expenses scandal and are keen to back parties of principle such as the Greens.

Here in Eastern region, about 10% of the vote will see Green lead candidate Rupert Read elected to the European parliament. This latest poll, and six others in the last few weeks have all consistently shown that this is entirely possible."


1. Commissioned by the Green Party. Fieldwork carried out 29-31 May 2009. Sample size 1,005 GB adults, polled by telephone.