Animal Welfare Party’s Jane Smith has made UK political history by retaining her seat on Alsager Town Council beating both the Labour and Conservative candidates with 357 votes (9.8%) – a record vote share for AWP.
Jane says: “This is a wonderful victory for Animal Welfare Party and our wider animal politics movement, and we’ve now proven that, given the opportunity, people can and will vote at the ballot box for animals’ rights to be heard in human decision-making. I’m so thankful to everyone who helped out in this David-and-Goliath election campaign. We’re at the vanguard of a huge international movement for change, and we’re breaking down barriers all the time in representing animals and their rights in human politics. I’m really looking forward to working for people, animals and environment in Alsager and beyond over the next four years”.
Animal Welfare Party was launched in 2006 and has members across the UK. The party has contested 11 elections in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is part of a growing global movement of political parties for animals now over 20 strong. Jane Smith became the party’s first councillor in 2017 when she changed membership from the Green Party to Animal Welfare Party as a sitting town councillor. Her retention of the seat now marks the first time an animal party has won a council seat in a UK election.
The party is also contesting the upcoming EU Parliament elections in the London Region as part of Animal Politics EU – a group of eleven European animal parties contesting the elections with a shared vision and manifesto.
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