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The Green party candidate in Filton and Bradley Stoke has stood down in protest at the “rank opportunism” behind the Remain Alliance pact with the Liberal Democrats.

Tom Meadowcroft announced on Friday evening that he was no longer the Green party’s candidate for the Tory marginal seat in the upcoming General Election and would instead throw his weight behind Labour candidate Mhairi Threlfall, a Bristol councillor who supports staying in the EU.

Last week the Greens, Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru announced an electoral pact in which the parties have agreed to stand aside for each other in up to 60 seats across the country to maximise the chances of returning a Remain MP to parliament.

Seats affected by the Remain Alliance in the South West include Bristol West, currently held by Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire, where the Lib Dems have agreed to stand aside for the Greens, and Thornbury and Yate, where the Greens have chosen to stand aside for Lib Dems.

Filton and Bradley Stoke, a seat held by Brexiter Jack Lopresti that is one of Labour's target seats in this election, was not included in the Remain Alliance pact.

(Image: Ben Birchall/PA Wire)

The South Gloucestershire seat voted to remain in the EU by 51 per cent in the 2016 referendum.

Earlier this month Jeremy Corbyn came to the constituency for Ms Threlfall’s general election campaign launch.

In a thread on Twitter, Mr Meadowcroft said the decision to stand down had been “agonising” but that he could not “get up at hustings and pretend I believe in this”.

The former candidate said it made “no sense to stand on a platform where we criticize Labour's environmental policies but are tacitly asking voters to turn a blind eye to the Lib Dems objectively much worse ones”.

“They won't give us PR [proportional representation] and they won't go near the only party that can boot out the Tories. I can't get up at a hustings and pretend I believe in this,” he said.

He continued: “Mhairi Threlfall is a Remainer and supports PR. To stand down in Thornbury and Yate but not FABS [Filton and Bradley Stoke] is rank opportunism and will hurt the very remain cause that we seem so keen to sacrifice ourselves wholly to.”

Mr Meadowcroft later told Bristol Live: "It makes no sense to me to run against an incumbent Remainer. I think that the more Remain MPs there are in Labour the more their position is going to shift. Just look at how far left it shifted under one person," he said, citing Mr Corbyn's election as party leader in 2015.

"If you want to do a Remain Allliance you should target Jack Lopresti.

"The Greens have been desperate to be taken seriously and I understand that they have been marginalised. But I don't think this is the right way to do it. The Greens got Brighton through sheer, honest hard work."

He said he ultimately made his decision because there had been a "wild policy and allegiance change" in two to three days and "it was a bit much for me".

Ms Threlfall thanked Mr Meadowcroft for his support. “I know this was a difficult decision for you,” she said.

Mr Meadowcroft also accused the national Green party of behaving “disgracefully” by giving local activists “almost no detail about the seats that were being discussed in the pact”.

And he urged “eco-socialists” in the Green party to “wake up”.

“Question the mechinations [sic] that have got us to this point and the opportunistic streak of your leaders. I'm content in being able to look at myself in a mirror again.”

It is understood that the timing of Mr Meadowcroft’s resignation means the Green party will not field another candidate for Filton and Bradley Stoke.

A Green party spokesperson said: “We’re disappointed that Tom Meadowcroft has decided to stand down as the Green party candidate for Filton and Bradley Stoke.

"Throughout the Unite To Remain process, local parties were involved in the decision to step aside in specific seats to increase the Remain presence in Parliament.

"There are hundreds of Green candidates standing up and down the country and we are confident of seeing more votes for the Greens than ever before. The campaign launch in Bristol proved the energy and enthusiasm there is across the city for the Green energy brought by Carla Denyer, Conan Connolly, Heather Mack and Tony Dyer.”

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