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 of Canada MP Blair Wilson joined the Green Party during Parliament's summer recess, technically becoming its first Member of Parliament (MP). He was defeated in the 2008 federal election, which was called before he had a chance to sit in the House of Commons as a Green MP. On 2 May 2011, Green Party leader Elizabeth May became the first elected Green Party MP to sit in the House of Commons. She won the riding of Saanich—Gulf Islands in coastal British Columbia. In winning her seat, May also became one of the few Greens worldwide to be elected in a federal, single-seat