History of the Green Party of England and Wales of Deputy Leader. The Green Party fielded more than 300 candidates for the 2010 general election. Caroline Lucas became the first Green candidate to gain a seat in Westminster, after being elected MP for Brighton Pavilion by a margin of 1,252 votes. The following week 600 new members had joined the Green Party bringing total membership to over 11,000. In previous years 600 new members was high for a whole year. On 24 May 2012, the six Green Party councillors elected to Stroud District Council formed a power sharing administration (a "constructive cooperation") with both the Labour Party and the
Green Party of England and Wales 50% of seats. Following its rapid increase in membership and support, the Green Party also announced it was targeting twelve key seats for the 2015 general election. These seats were its one current seat, Brighton Pavilion, held by Lucas since 2010; Norwich South, a Liberal Democrat seat where June 2014 polling put the Greens in second place behind Labour; Bristol West, another Liberal Democrat seat, where they targeted the student vote; St. Ives, where they received an average of 18% of the vote in county elections; Sheffield Central; Liverpool Riverside; Oxford East; Solihull; Reading East; and three more seats with