For the last two months, I’ve been pounding the pavements in the local elections – for non-regular readers I’m a Liberal Democrat Councillor here in Newcastle. The result in my ward was more than a little disappointing from our point of view, but may have been outside our control. Turnout was up about 12% against to a 25% drop across the city – a sure sign of a substantial student vote. Certainly the Independent candidate for North East Mayor, Jamie Driscoll, featured in posters in many student houses – closer inspection showed that these were prepared by New Green Deal Rising, a London based youth climate campaign. Another feature of the election was a substantial number of “I’m a Climate Voter” posters distributed by Greenpeace. Our inability to harness this surge in pro-environment sentiment is extremely frustrating.

My party did much better across the country, gaining 104 seats, second only to Labour’s gain of 184. The Greens also did well, gaining 74. In Newcastle they gained their first two seats ever, both from Labour in traditionally working class wards. Talking to their activists at the count, their main target, Byker, was won through hard work, presenting themselves as a fresh alternative to tired incumbents. The second gain, Elswick, was the shock result and appears to have been based on an under-the-radar pro-Palestinian campaign aimed at the ward’s substantial Muslim population. I don’t know how typical that picture is nationwide, but certainly it punctures the idea of Green voters being middle-class yoghurt weavers.

Across the country, the idea that environmental policies are unpopular was blown out of the water. Susan Hall, the virulently anti-ULEZ* Tory candidate, made went backwards against the Labour incumbent Sadiq Khan in the London Mayoral race. Reform, the only party to run on an overtly anti-climate/Net Zero platform, won a grand total of 2 seats out of the 2500 contested.

So, in summary, it was a good set of elections for pro-environment politicians, with the caveat that correlation is not always causation. However, I suspect we will see less anti-environmentalism from the right, given that tactic seems to have proven a busted flush.

* Ultra Low Emissions Zone – London’s clean air charge on polluting vehicles