Firing the first salvo in her bid to take the Brighton Pavilion constituency from Labour at the general election, Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MEP has launched a powerful billboard campaign to run throughout Labour's Brighton conference.
The artwork for the campaign - http://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/imagelibrary/gordon-brighton-billboard.jpg - is likely to reflect the tone of the Labour conference. It shows a tired-looking Gordon Brown fashioned from old newspaper stories of repeated Labour disasters.
The posters, devised by the Green Party's retained ad agency glue London, observe that twice as many people in Brighton (31%) voted Green in the recent European elections as voted Labour (15%), with the Conservatives on 22% also far behind the Greens. The Greens came first throughout all three constituencies in Brighton and Hove, and recently leapfrogged from third place to take a council seat from the Conservatives in the Goldsmid by-election in the city. In Caroline Lucas's Pavilion constituency, since 2005 the Greens have come first in every election, claiming a majority of the local council seats.
The Greens' campaign director for Brighton Pavilion, Paul Steedman, said today:
"The Green Party's record of winning in Brighton and Hove will literally be part of the scenery of the Labour conference. Everywhere they go, Labour delegates will be reminded that in this year's elections the Greens got more than twice as many votes as Labour, and only Caroline Lucas can beat the Conservatives in Brighton Pavilion."
The biggest of the campaign posters, measuring 9m x 9m, went up this morning and can be seen at the corner of Queens Road and North Road, en route from Brighton station to the seafront.
"Rigorous Green policies for more jobs"
Paul Steedman continued:
"We're going all out to win in Brighton Pavilion. Caroline Lucas is an exceptional candidate. We have hundreds of volunteers committed to helping the campaign. On the doorsteps, where it really counts, people are telling us that they're sick of Labour, that they don't trust Cameron, that they want the positive change the Greens are offering."
Caroline Lucas, candidate for Brighton Pavilion, said:
"I will be putting forward rigorous policies for more jobs, and better pay for nurses, cleaners and shopworkers, not just City slickers; for an NHS that doesn't leave people in Brighton - or anywhere else - without healthcare because they can't afford prescription charges or dental fees; for a rail network that works - and that people can actually afford to use. I will stand up for all of Brighton's communities, and we're going to show that politics can be about a fair deal for everyone."
Paul Steedman added:
"In Brighton Pavilion, it's a straight fight between the Greens and the Conservatives. Every election in the city since the last general election has demonstrated this. The Conservatives are desperate to stop a Lucas victory. They don't want the only female leader of a political party in parliament, breaking up their old boys club. The Conservatives say they'll hold a splashy 'primary' contest to grab headlines, but it will leave our broken political system unchanged."
"I'm confident Brighton voters will see through this charade to the slash-and-burn Conservative policy of service cuts that will apply, whoever they select."