At a packed meeting of Green Party members tonight, Dr Rupert Read was selected as the Green Party's parliamentary candidate for the Norwich North by-election, ahead of fellow Norwich City Councillor Claire Stephenson, and former councillor Jessica Goldfinch.
Rupert Read said: "I'm honoured to be given the opportunity to represent the Green Party in a by-election in which, for the first time ever, the national spotlight will be on the Green Party and our campaign and our prospects are being taken extremely seriously."
As well as being a Green city councillor, Dr Read (43) is also a lecturer in philosophy at the University of East Anglia.
Dr Read recently won a huge expansion of the Green vote in the east of England in his campaign for the European elections and came within 1% of securing a seat. Hundreds of supporters took an active part in that campaign, and, in the absence of the high-level funding enjoyed by other parties, the Greens are calling for similar assistance in Norwich North where they'll be organising their first major leafletting this weekend.
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Notes for Editors
- Rupert Read can be contacted on 01603 219294 / 07946 459066
- Norwich Green Party has 13 Norwich City Councillors (Labour 15, Lib-Dems 6 Tories 5). It has 7 Norfolk County Councillors serving 7 of the 13 Norwich county wards. In the 2009 European election, the Green Party secured more votes than any other party in the Norwich City Council area, gaining 25%.
- A high-resolution photo of Rupert Read can be downloaded from:
http://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/
imagelibrary/rupert_read_high.jpg