Makerfield candidate aims to put Climate Party on political map

A candidate in the Makerfield by-election has said he wants to "get more votes than British entries into the Eurovision Song Contest".

Ed Gemmell, from Hazlemere in Buckinghamshire, is standing for the Climate Party in Thursday's poll that will decide whether Labour's Andy Burnham will return as an MP in the Greater Manchester parliamentary seat.

Burnham has already said he will take part in any challenge for the leadership of his party if he wins.

Gemmell said he would be taking part in the ballot to "put climate on the agenda".

Gemmell recognised that getting more votes than UK entries in the annual pan-European musical extravaganza would not be difficult.

Indeed, he says "one vote may be all we need" to beat the least successful UK efforts.

When he stood in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election, following the resignation of Boris Johnson in 2023, he collected 49 votes.

That figure put him in 15th place, some way behind even the comic candidate Count Binface, who finished on 190. Binface is standing again in Makerfield.

Gemmell might, however, be pleased to know that his score of 49 has only been beaten six times by UK Eurovision entries in the last 20 years.

He said Johnson featured in one of his earliest campaigns.

"I started World No Disposable Cup Day, which is famous for Boris Johnson having a disposable cup pulled out of his hand by his PR in front of a whole load of TV cameras," he said.

Three weeks later, he had a dream which inspired him to make tackling climate change his mission.

The vision in his head involved his two sons, who he looks after as a single parent, appearing in army uniforms.

He said: "They look at me and they say 'we could be killed but we have big guns and so we're killing the poorer people to stop them getting the drinking water so you and other people like you in Britain can continue to live in luxury'.

"Both of my kids point at me and say 'Papa, you knew about this 20 years ago and what did you do about it?'"

He said he "woke up actually crying and saying 'but I've got a job, but I've got a mortgage" before he realised that his excuses "didn't wash and I have just worked on climate change ever since".

He felt the Green Party of that time was preoccupied with opposing Brexit, so he stood as a climate-inspired independent in the 2019 general election in Wycombe, polling 191 votes as Conservative Brexiteer Steve Baker kept his seat.

Elections for the unitary council in Buckinghamshire followed, and Gemmell got himself a place representing Hazlemere ward.

He said: "My only policy was 'climate action now' and I got voted in above two Conservatives."

Gemmell set up the Climate Party in 2020 and took a delegation to the COP26 Climate Change Conference in 2021.

He felt the event was "completely useless, unless you're a producer of Chardonnay and Beaujolais Nouveau".

But the experience persuaded Gemmell to position his party in the centre of the political spectrum, rather than in what he sees as the left-wing space occupied by the Green Party.

Standing under the Climate Party banner, he notched up 489 votes in the 2024 general election, again in Wycombe, where Labour's Emma Reynolds ousted Baker.

He now wants Britain to "lead the clean industrial revolution [and] bring forward its net zero target by 20 years to stimulate its economy, drive innovation, drive investment".

He also wanted to protect nature — "no more destruction of green belt, no more cutting down the trees, keep everything safe".

He is realistic about his prospects of success in Makerfield, where he is "standing because we couldn't find a local candidate".

Gemmell says Andy Burnham, who plans to challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the leadership of the Labour Party if he wins, has "done some good work" as Mayor of Greater Manchester and "could well be our next prime minister".

He sees Reform UK as "the only other credible winner, although unlikely" and he says the party's claim that net zero targets are causing de-industrialisation is "absolute rubbish".

As Thursday's by-election gets closer, Gemmell may be able to sympathise with UK Eurovision entries as he prepared himself for being placed towards the bottom of the table.

But, he said: "The whole point is to put climate on the agenda.

"Get it there, get it talked about."

And that, as far as Gemmell is concerned, would be enough.

You can find out more about all the Makerfield candidates here.

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