UK Greens retain single seat despite surge

The Greens, buoyed by a positive exit poll, had hoped to double its presence in Westminster but will again have just one MP in the House of Commons.

Australian-born Greens leader Natalie Bennett insists she's proud of her party's performance in the UK general election despite it failing to win an additional seat in Westminster.

An exit poll predicted the Greens could welcome a second MP but it will in fact again be represented solely by former leader Caroline Lucas in Brighton Pavilion.

"Our astounding membership surge in the last year, which means the Green Party now has more members than both Ukip and the Liberal Democrats, has helped deliver tonight's excellent results," Ms Bennett said in a statement as the party appeared set to win about four per cent of the national vote, up from one per cent in 2010.

Greens membership has quadrupled in less than a year and now stands at 70,000.

Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party will likely have an outright majority in the 650-seat lower house after junior partner the Liberal Democrats were obliterated.

The Lib Dems have gone from having almost 60 seats to less than 10, while the Scottish National Party won a landslide in Scotland, destroying Labour north of the border.

Ms Bennett, who was born and educated in Sydney before moving to the UK in 1999, unsurprisingly failed to win the seat she was contesting in north London.

But the 49-year-old secured 12.8 per cent of the vote in Holborn and St Pancras recording the Greens best-ever result in that constituency.

Ms Lucas said it was "amazing" the Greens secured over a million votes in total and placed second in four constituencies.

Speaking after retaining Brighton Pavilion, the former party leader called for reform of Britain's first past the post voting system.

"In spite of those million votes we have just one seat," Ms Lucas told Sky News on Friday morning (Friday evening AEST).

"As more and more people recognise the discrepancy between the number of votes cast and the number of seats achieved there'll be even more of a grassroots movement calling for a reform to our broken, decrepit voting system."

A referendum on the question of introducing preferential voting - as operates in Australia - was defeated in 2011.

But Ms Lucas, in a renewed push backed by the populist Ukip, said the UK voting system had to reflect the democratic will of the country - and at present it didn't.

The Greens MP said the Conservative win meant the politics of fear had won out over the politics of hope in 2015.

The 54-year-old vowed to work with the SNP and any other anti-austerity parties in the new parliament to oppose welfare cuts.

The Greens had hoped they could also win Bristol West but Darren Hall (17,227 votes) came second to the Labour candidate (22,900 votes) who took the seat off the Liberal Democrats.


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Source: AAP



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