The Green Party has announced its candidate to stand for a newly created Parliamentary constituency at the next General Election.

Stuart Jeffery will contest the new Maidstone and Malling seat at the election which must come later this year.

Mr Jeffery will be a familiar figure to many voters - he has stood for election to Parliament four times before - three times for the Maidstone and the Weald constituency and once for Canterbury.

Previously his best result was 7% of the vote and fourth place, but he is confident that a lot has changed since the last election in 2019.

In 2022, Mr Jeffery, who is also involved in local politics, became the first Green councillor to be elected to Maidstone Borough Council.

The following year he was joined by two more Green colleagues.

In the forthcoming May elections, the Greens will field 35 candidates in Maidstone - their largest number ever.

Mr Jeffery said: “It is an honour to once again stand for Parliament.

“We have a Parliament that has completely failed the people, whether that is the cost of living and the level of poverty that has drastically increased, the failure to take net zero seriously, the flooding of our rivers and seas with sewage or their complicity in the atrocities in Gaza. They have failed in all these areas and more.

“We can do better. We don’t have to go backwards like this. These are political choices made by government. We don’t need this return to Victorian England.

“I will be a strong voice for my constituents, not one that is given a script by head office. I will stand strong and fight for what is right for people and the world around us.”

Mr Jeffery, a former nurse, now lectures in health care management at the University of Kent. He has been married to Dawn for 30 years and they have a daughter, Poppy.

He said: “I think the tide is finally turning.

“There really is almost no difference between the Conservatives and Labour, and the Lib Dems are just flailing around in the dark.

“The new link between Maidstone and Malling does seem to make for a more cohesive constituency.

“Previously the difference between the urban areas of Maidstone and the rural character of the Weald villages was quite profound.

“I have been heavily involved in the campaign to save Oaken Wood and other issues in Malling, so hopefully voters there will know who I am.”

Other candidates who have declared themselves to fight the Maidstone and Malling constituency are Helen Grant for the Conservatives, Dave Naghi for the Lib Dems, and Paul Thomas for Reform UK.