The Green Party is standing candidates in all of the Swansea and Gower constituencies, for the first time giving all voters in the area the chance to vote for a Green candidate. Our candidates are as follows:
Peter Jones – Swansea West
I am the Green Party candidate for the new Swansea West constituency: I have lived in the constituency since October 2001 and was a Labour Councillor for Sketty Ward from 2017 to 2022, when I did not seek re-election. I joined the Green Party in the summer of 2022, having first resigned from Labour – I had concluded that Starmer had indeed ‘changed’ the LP, such that it was now a hollowed out shell of a once great party of radical reform, of which I could no longer be a member.
I am an environmentalist, having worked for RSPB Cymru from 2002 to 2016 as its Environmental Policy Officer, with responsibility for advising on renewable energy and climate change, and their impacts on wildlife, espcially birds, in Wales. During this time, with other green NGOs, I helped the Welsh Government in developing the 2015 Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act. Whilst a Swansea Councillor, I set up and chaired a new Natural Environment Scrutiny Panel; conducted a formal Inquiry, with resulting recommendations, into the Council’s environmental policies and practice; and moved in full Council successful motions on both the climate and biodiversity global emergencies.
On general policy issues: I am very pro-EU, believing that the 2016 referendum outcome was a disastrous mistake built upon lies and misinformation; I fully support replacement of the undemocratic First Past The Post electoral system with the Single Transferable Vote system, as in Ireland, which would end the democratic absurdity of a government being elected with just 43/44% of the popular vote, as now; strongly support renewable energy technologies, especially solar, wind and tidal; and support the imposition of a wealth tax on the top one per cent of asset holders, releasing c£50 billion annually to restore our public services, including schools, hospitals, welfare benefits and the police and military.
Finally, I uphold the international legal rights of asylum seekers and refugees to settle in the UK, bringing many skills that we need, including qualified nurses and care workers. I have worked in support of my local food bank, especially with asylum seekers from central and south american countries, seeking refuge from unspeakable horrors and violence in their respective countries.
Chris Evans – Gower
Chris is offering real hope and real change for the people of Gower.
He has lived in the Gower constituency for most of his life and knows from first hand experience the struggles associated with being working class and how poverty and redundancy can affect families.
The Conservatives have spent years ruining our country while handing out million pound contracts to family, friends and donors, Labour have made a mess of the limited funds received from Westminster while Vaughan Gething takes huge donations from climate criminal. As for Reform, they’ll just offer the same failed Tory policies and isolationism.
It is time to end the corruption. Gower deserves better, Britain deserves better.
Karen Lawrence – Llanelli
I have been a resident of Gower since 1982 and I’ve tried to live in peace and harmony with my local environment and am active and helpful in my community. I have been a committed environmentalist (Green) and peace advocate for my entire life. I’ve always tried to live simply and am currently a resident in a modest household on the Gower peninsula. I have brought up a lovely family in a home full of love, respect, playing of musical instruments, singing, community participation and gardening. I have been a member of the Green Party for a long while and regularly contributed to its activities and I am a local community councillor, a position that I love. To protect the environment, I belong to the Swansea Climate Action Network and Glyphosate Free Swansea group. During my career I worked as a care worker involved in looking after vulnerable people and those with mental health issues. My husband, daughter and sons are musicians and singer song writers. I sing, with my husband in open mikes and we sing with the “Canaries”, the vocal section of Extinction Rebellion. I’m a passionate person, and if selected I would work tirelessly on all the issues that the Green Party promotes. Thus, building an alternative way of life to protect our environment, communities and planet from further damage
by unconstrained growth policies. I am a devoted pacifist and wish I could suddenly wave a magic wand to stop wars across the world, however I realise that is not feasible, but I will campaign with all my energy against conflicts. Outrageous wars such as those in Palestine and Eastern Europe must be stopped to end the brutal atrocities to human beings and to bring peace. The current political elites are in it for what they, and what their backers can gain, I am in politics for what I can contribute.