Results breakdown of the 2005 United Kingdom general election Party came third in Brighton Pavilion (with Keith Taylor as candidate) behind Labour and the Conservatives, taking 21.9% of the votes cast. Despite this unprecedented high share of the vote Taylor was not selected to contest the seat in the 2010 general election, losing his prospective position to Caroline Lucas. The English Democrats gained their highest percentage of the vote, when former "Sun" newspaper columnist, Gary Bushell stood in Greenwich and Woolwich and gained 3.4% of votes cast. The Independent Working Class Association stood for the first time in a general election, having previously only stood in local council elections.
Green Party in Northern Ireland the party won 11,985 first preference votes or 1.7% of the total – a rise of 1.4% since the 2003 Assembly election. In 2009, the Green Party stood Steven Agnew in the European election he secured 15,674 votes, trebling the Green Party's share of the vote. The Greens fought the election on the Green New Deal, calling for job creation in the green energy sector. The Greens fielded four candidates in the 2010 UK general election, none of which managed to secure a seat. However, the number of votes for Green candidates more than trebled. Brian Wilson MLA stood down