Ben Fletcher to Stand in Putney for Green Party

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Local resident wants 'strong and rigorous action' on air quality in the area

l-r: Lois Davis, Ben Fletcher, Esther Obiri-Darko

The Wandsworth Green party have selected their candidates to contest the local seats in the General Election at a meeting this Thursday night (27 April).

Following a hustings meeting in Battersea, they chose Ben Fletcher to contest the Putney constituency on 8 June. He immediately made air quality a key campaign issue saying, “As a Putney resident I am well aware of, and very concerned about, the impact toxic air has on our health and quality of life. I will campaign for strong and rigorous action to tackle air pollution and ensure the government step up to their responsibilities to protect public health.”

The Green Party in the borough say they will campaign against a hard Brexit, for action to tackle climate change, for decent homes, for a public NHS, for free, quality education, for a fair economy and for better transport.

He will be up against Education Secretary Justine Greening who holds the Putney seat for the Conservatives with a large majority. However, voters in the constituency were in favour of remaining in the EU by a significant margin. The Liberal Democrats have already chosen Ryan Mercer as their candidate but there has been no announcement at this point about Labour's candidate.

The selection of candidates by the Greens and the Lib Dems puts paid to the hopes of some that anti-Brexit parties in the area would form a pact to maximise the chance of a single candidate for a 'progressive alliance'.

 

General Election 2015: Putney
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
Conservative	Justine Greening	23,018	53.8	+0.8
Labour	Sheila Boswell	12,838	30.0	+2.6
Liberal Democrat	Andrew Hallett	2,717	6.3	−10.6
Green	Christopher Poole	2,067	4.8	+3.4
UKIP	Patricia Ward	1,989	4.6	+3.5
Animal Welfare	Guy Dessoy	184	0.4	N/A
Majority			10,180	23.8	-0.8
Turnout			42,813	67.0	+2.6
Conservative hold		Swing	-0.9

 

Lois Davis selected as the Green candidate for Battersea and Esther Obiri-Darko is the candidate for Tooting.

Justine Greening has represented the constituency of Putney since 2005 winning the last election in 2015 with over half the vote.

April 28, 2017