Can you help us get Green Party candidate Sarah Ward elected to Parliament for Poole?

Sarah has lived in Poole for over 25 years, she is mum to three now adult daughters, all of whom were born in Poole. Sarah works for a charity which provides advocacy for children involved in the care system, or who are care experienced, ensuring they have a voice and that their rights and entitlements are met. Prior to this Sarah worked for 30 years with homelessness and substance misuse organisations, developing services and improving outcomes for some of the most vulnerable members of our community. As a person with a deep rooted belief in the power of community, Sarah was previously a trustee for local LGBT+ charity Space Youth Projects, and more recently The Parent Carer Foundation, taking on a key role in the SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) improvement work being carried out by BCP Council. Sarah is passionate about improving the rights of carers (being one herself) and improving health equality for all. In 2020 Sarah co-founded and ran the Covid-19 Poole Community Project – providing vital support to over 400 local residents with a team of around 20 volunteers.

As a Green Party activist, Sarah has a passion for protecting and restoring the environment and encouraging others to see that we are all part of nature and not separate to it. Sarah supported her daughter to organise the COP27 rally for BCP in 2022, which was attended by over 300 people. Sarah is a keen advocate of social justice and campaigns for our essential services like the NHS, water supply and public transport to be kept out of the hands of profiteering private enterprise. In 2020 Sarah was named as one of the Big Issue 100 Change Makers of the year for her campaign to remove measures the council had introduced which penalised people living on the streets for being homeless. The campaign resulted in a case going to the High Court and the council removing the measures. Currently Sarah is one of the key organisers for the Palestine Solidarity Movement, carrying out inclusive, family friendly protests over many months to call for an immediate ceasefire, and the rights of all Palestinians to live and return to their homeland to live in peace.

The Green Party does not participate in the system of legalised bribery and corruption that dominates UK politics. At the last general election, Labour and the Conservatives spent roughly £4 million pounds, more than 10 times the amount spent by the Green Party. Outside of election time Labour and the Tories outspend Greens by an even greater ratio.

In the last few years, the Conservative Party has received donations of at least £800,000 from private health care providers. Labour's Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting has personally received £175,000 linked to private health care providers.

The money MPs receive from sources like this and from people like Frank Hester and Lord Donoughue is conditional upon them advocating for those donors in Parliament, rather than for their constituents. This situation lies at the heart of so many terrible decisions made by both Conservative and Labour governments over the last 40 years.

However, by running efficient and effective campaigns Greens are now winning elections at a startling rate. Once people realise they have a Green candidate who will answer to them rather than to party execs and donors, they are ready to switch. Even in First Past the Post local elections Greens have been winning landslide victories like those seen last year in Bournemouth wards such as Moordown and Winton East. This is why there has been an astronomical growth in the number of Green Councillors across the UK: