Great Britain gets its first Green MP

- Published: 14 May, 2010

The UK Parliament is to have its first-ever Green MP, voted in by a manifesto that includes a pledge to set a minimum target for organic food conversion.

Former MEP Caroline Lucas secured the Brighton Pavilion seat from Labour on 7 May. The Green Party's 2010 manifesto aims to set a target of converting 10% of the UK's food production into organic every five years, as well as replacing the Common Agricultural Policy with support for smaller farms, organic agriculture and local food markets.

Speaking to Jeremy Paxman on the BBC on 1 May, Lucas said she did not call on everyone to become vegetarian and said that, in fact, her husband was "a rabid meat-eater".

"Eating lots of meat isn't good from an animal welfare perspective; it's not particularly good from a health perspective. But nobody is suggesting we should become vegetarian," she said. "In an ideal world, we should be eating less meat and therefore treating animals a lot better and having better health. It's win-win."

Meat-eating environmentalist Zac Goldsmith has also been elected to Parliament as the Conservative MP for Richmond Park, while fellow Tory and sausage producer Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones failed in his attempt to capture the Chippenham seat.

Ex-Labour farming minister Jim Fitzpatrick saw off a challenge from George Galloway to be re-elected as MP for Poplar and Limehouse, but rural affairs minister Dan Norris lost his Somerset seat to the Conservative Party. Former Liberal Democrat spokesperson for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Tim Farron made his marginal Cumbrian seat safer and Ex-Conservative shadow Defra Secretary Nick Herbert increased his share of the vote in Arundel and South Downs.

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