A CALL for political parties to unite against the Conservative’s candidate in Reading East has been issued by the Green party, who want to stop a hard Brexit from the European Union.
The group is asking its counterparts in Labour and the Liberal Democrats to form a “progressive alliance” in Reading East and field just a single candidate against Rob Wilson. The party said that it wants to block a hard Brexit and standing together would be one way to do that.
In the 2015 General Election, Rob Wilson increased his majority and scooped 23,217 votes. In second place was Labour’s Matt Rodda with 16,697 votes. The Liberal Democrats saw their share of the vote collapse by 20% to just 3,719, less than 100 votes ahead of the UKIP candidate Christine Forrester, who had 3,647.
The Green Party’s candidate, Rob White, has 3,214 votes.
If the left-of-centre parties votes were added together, they would form 23,630 votes and be enough to unseat the Conservative candidate.
The Green Party said that its co- leader Caroline Lucas has been a prominent advocate of progressive alliances in which local parties enter mutually beneficial arrangements to promote proportional representation for future parliamentary elections.
Kizzi Johannessen, Green Parliamentary Candidate for Reading East, said: “Lots of people I talk to right across the spectrum, whether, Labour, Lib Dem or Green, are terrified by the prospect of a landslide Tory victory on June 8. What they want most of all is for progressive politicians to work together to prevent this from happening.
“As well as opposing a hard Brexit, for the good of people and the environment, I would hope that a progressive candidate might support policies such as investment in local authorities. This would enable councils such as Reading to stop cutting vital public services like children’s centres and swimming pools.
“I am sure that, with goodwill and a few concessions on all sides, we can combine forces to defeat the Tories here and to ensure that in Reading East we play our part in avoiding a national disaster.
“The crucial thing is that it takes three to tango in this constituency. If two out of three parties come to an arrangement and the third refuses to participate, then we’re making worthy gestures with no real bite. The electoral arithmetic here means it has to be a three-way arrangement to give voters a real alternative to the Tories.
“We need to stand up together for what matters.”
We contacted the other candidates for a comment.
Standing in Reading East are Kizzi Johannessen, Green Party; Andy Kirkwood, Movement for Active Democracy; Matt Rodda, Labour; Rob Wilson, Conservatives; Dr Jenny Woods, Liberal Democrats
