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Can Green Party upset election tradition in Hull?

Sarah Sandersonin Hull
BBC White male with short brown hair and stubble smiling into the camera. He is wearing a brown jacket, a blue jumper and he's standing in front of the Humber Estuary. He's wearing a Green Party rosette.BBC
David Prescott is one of 19 candidates standing for the Hull and East Riding Green Party in Hull's local elections in May

The Hull and East Riding Green Party has launched its local election campaign in Hull, with the son of John Prescott standing as a candidate in the Sutton Ward.

David Prescott, 55, had been a member of the Labour Party, which his father represented, since he was 17 but cancelled his membership in October 2025 and joined the Greens.

For many years, the local elections in Hull have been a battle between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. However, Prescott believes the Green Party stands a good chance of winning seats in the city's local elections.

A third of Hull City Council's 57 seats will be contested when voters head to the polls on 7 May.

Members of the Hull and East Riding Green Party are gathered together standing in a crowd smiling at the camera. They're attending the party's campaign launch for Hull's local elections. Some of the members are holding up Green Party signs with their slogan which says 'Hull Deserves Better'. Some members have also brought their pet dogs to join the launch.
Membership has grown locally within the Hull and East Riding Green Party in the past year

His father, Lord Prescott, was the Labour MP for Hull East for 40 years, from 1970 to 2010 and the UK's longest-serving deputy prime minister between 1997 and 2007.

When asked what his father, who died aged 86 in November 2024, would have thought about him defecting, he said: "He came here to learn at Hull University, he was involved with the National Union of Seamen and for many years he gave public service to the city because he cared for the people, and he just wanted to make the place better.

"I like to feel I'm doing the same thing, but I'm just wearing a different rosette now.

"People are going to have real choice to vote for a progressive party that wants warmer homes and lower bills and a fairer deal for the people of the city but which doesn't pit communities against other communities."

Stewart Arnold, co-ordinator of the Hull and East Riding Green Party, said it was an exciting time to be in the party, which has seen a surge in membership both locally and nationally.

He said: "We've gone from about 300 members this time last year to nearly 1,400, and that's an indication of the enthusiasm and support there is for the Green Party locally.

"I think it's also the reflection on the fact that the traditional main parties don't have much to offer in this case.

"The Greens, I think, are sending out a very clear, distinctive message and a message of hope, which people are certainly supporting."

All wards in Hull, except Ings and Kingswood, will elect a local councillor on 7 May.

The Hull City Council website will have a full list of candidates when nominations close.

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