VEGAN campaigner Kevin White is set to stand for the Green Party at this year’s General Election.
Mr White, who stood as a candidate in the 2010 election, has also been a local election candidate over recent years and a Feckenham parish councillor since 2011.
For nearly 20 years he has campaigned on issues including the environment and animal protection, setting up the online re-use group Redditch Freegle and running an annual independent Green Fair for seven years until 2012.
He said he was ‘delighted’ to be selected and would be ‘honoured to represent the people of Redditch’.
“Greens represent the party of hope against the austerity policies of the other main parties, which are often indistinguishable from each other. This promises to be an exciting years for politics, with the possibility of real change.” he said.
He added the party was seeing a ‘green surge’ across the country, polling up to ten per cent nationally while their membership had doubled in the past year and was predicted to pass UKIP’s in the next week and the Liberal Democrats’ before the election.
But Mr White and the party will have to improve massively on his 2010 performance when he polled just 393 votes or less than one per cent of all those cast.
Policies include investing in a low-carbon economy, creating millions of ‘green’ jobs in renewable energy, public transport and insulating homes while simultaneously boosting the economy and protecting the planet for future generations.
Other pledges include a living wage of £10 per hour for all, an end to corporate tax avoidance, reversing the privatisation of the NHS and renationalising the railways.
“It is a privilege to be standing as a prospective MP in the town where my parents, grandparents and I have all been born and bred.” Mr White added.
“I’m looking forward to giving people the opportunity to vote for a fair, more compassionate, democratic and sustainable town and world.”
Mr White is joined by candidates for the Conservatives, Labour, UKIP and an independent in contesting the Redditch seat.
