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University 18 Yrs + | Parties and Voting

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The UK Green Party

The UK Green Party was one of the first in Europe but failed to make any impact unlike many Continental Green parties because of the first past the post system.

The new electoral systems for the European Parliament, Scottish Parliament and the London Assembly allowed them to gain representation and, despite having less than 1% of the national vote in 2010, they won their first Parliamentary seat in Brighton Pavilion. Caroline Lucas retained this seat for the Green Party in 2015 and 2017.
The Green Party has local strength in a few university towns and areas such as Norwich, Oxford, Stroud and Brighton.
In 2010, the Liberal Democrats joined a coalition government with the Conservative Party. As part of this the two parties developed and agreed a coalition agreement. Within this the Liberal’s pledge to abolish tuition fees for university students, that had resulted in a huge surge in support from the demographic, was dropped. In fact tuition fees were increased. This policy decision plagued both the party and it’s leader for the duration of the parliament and still taints them today despite the resignation of then Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
The 2015 General Election campaign showed an increase in membership and support from this demographic for the green party.  The party and their Leader Natalie Bennett was also included in the election TV debates.
This shift in profile and their position on Brexit saw further break throughs in the 2019 European Elections.