Greens choose Brighton by-election candidate

The Green Party selected its candidate for the East Brighton council by-election last night (Wednesday 19 September).

It chose Carlie Goldsmith, a criminologist and mother who grew up in Whitehawk and raised her own family there.

Brighton and Hove Green Party said that she was a fifth generation Brightonian – the Greens have previously been criticised by their opponents for fielding candidates from outside the area.

She is a criminologist specialising in youth crime and victimisation, community safety and the relationship between social inequalities and crime.

She said: “My experience of growing up in Whitehawk and bringing up my own family there is that my neighbours and friends have felt for decades that they’ve been let down by both Labour and Conservative administrations in Brighton.

“The Green Party’s focus on fairness and social justice and its practical improvements in the city, such as the Living Wage, the reintroduction of council house building and its financial help in compensating for the Government’s outrageous benefit cuts, offers a real alternative.

“Life is tough at the moment but as part of a Green administration I’d be able to make a practical and lasting difference to people’s futures.”

The by-election for the vacant East Brighton seat on Brighton and Hove City Council is due to be held on Thursday 18 October.

The seat fell vacant when one of the three Labour councillors for the ward, Craig Turton, stood down for health reasons.

The party is hoping that its candidate Chaun Wilson will hold the seat and join Gill Mitchell and Warren Morgan in the council chamber.

The Conservatives are fielding 18-year-old student Joe Miller, who comes from Whitehawk.