Portsmouth Green Party are urging their voters to support the National Health Action Party candidate Dr Veronika Wagner in the local elections in Cosham on 2nd May. Sarah Cheverton reports.
The Portsmouth Green Party announced their support for Dr Wagner on the party’s Facebook page on 22nd April, highlighting Dr Wagner’s fight against the privatisation of health services at Queen Alexandra Hospital, her 21-year career in the NHS and the NHA Party’s opposition to Brexit.
The Green Party are not standing candidates in Cosham, Paulsgrove or in Drayton & Farlington wards.
The announcement from the Green Party said:
Portsmouth Green Party is standing aside in Cosham Ward in the upcoming local elections and throwing our support behind Veronika Wagner, the National Health Action Party candidate.
We believe that the NHA Party shares many of our values and we are fully supporting the campaign to elect Veronika to the City Council.
Dr Wagner, a German national, supports the NHA Party’s pledge to fight for a second referendum on Brexit and to make the case for the UK remaining in the European Union. The NHA party are also committed to fighting for the rights of all EU/EEA nationals in the event of Brexit.
Dr Wagner said: ‘Alongside fighting Brexit and the privatisation of the NHS, I am also very concerned about the impact that air pollution is having on the health of the city, so I would campaign for improved public transport and stricter clean air laws, alongside the Green Party.
‘I also want to protect the civil rights of all Cosham residents against the increasingly hostile environment surrounding EU citizens, migrants, and refugees, as well as people with disabilities and people in poverty which impacts on health work too.’
Next week’s elections in Cosham asks voters to select 2 councillors, one seat being up for election on the 4 yearly cycle and the other the former seat of Conservative councillor Jim Fleming, who was removed from the council earlier this year for failing to attend council meetings.
Cosham voters will choose 2 candidates on one ballot paper. The candidate with the most votes will be declared the winner and their seat will be up again in 4 years, while the second-placed candidate’s seat will be up again for re-election in 2020.
In addition to the NHA Party, the remaining Cosham candidates are standing for Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and UKIP. Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats are each standing two candidates, while the NHS Party and UKIP have one candidate each.
The image below shows all the Cosham candidates and is taken from the Who Can I Vote For? website which lists all candidates in the local and European elections in 2019. The website is run by the Democracy Club, a not for profit company that aims to ‘build the digital infrastructure needed for a 21st century democracy’, and the project has been compiled by volunteers.
