It was a small piece of history being made when the first two Green Party councillors were elected to Preston City Council in May.
Gabie Lowe, the first leader of the Green Party at Preston City Council, unseated Labour’s Pav Akhtar in Plungington while Veronica Balmer took the City Centre ward that had previously been held by Labour too, with their candidate in Mark Routledge finishing second.
It was a set of elections which ultimately meant that Preston City Council’s roster of councillors looks different. The drop in support for Labour was not the same level seen elsewhere around the country and they held onto a number of seats, but Preston is now led by a minority Labour team rather than the comfortable majority they once enjoyed.
Read the first piece in this series: Reform UK won more total votes in Preston than any other party – what do they plan from the sidelines?
Cllr Balmer says that her experience of the dynamic with Preston Labour – and other parties – has so far been constructive.
She says to Blog Preston: “Preston is a little strange because the local Labour Party does line up with a bunch of our values. It makes it interesting as an opposition, because you’re adding to, as opposed to opposing, if that makes sense. It’s a lot more constructive and, to be fair, I think that is the attitude a lot of the parties have as well.
“It is nice that we don’t have to have a combative relationship with Matthew Brown and the Labour Party because we want to affect change in a good way. We’re here to do a job to the best of our ability, we don’t want to showboat.”
The Lib Dems are likewise described as having been very welcoming, as are the officers at Preston City Council. The Green Party and Reform UK could fairly be considered as opposite ends of the political spectrum, but the latter have been described as, mostly, professional in how they have behaved so far.
Cllr Lowe, who at 24 is the youngest party leader at Preston City Council by some distance, says: “The first week everyone wanted to be my best friend. One member of a certain turquoise party has been a little condescending about my age.”
Cllr Balmer adds: “I’m on the audit committee with Rob Walsh and he’s been very professional and seems to be focused on being constructive.”
The Green Party has never really had a presence in Preston. There have been candidates in past elections but it wouldn’t be unfair to describe them as paper candidates. To some degree, that was the thought and expectation for both Cllr Lowe and Cllr Balmer. Both describe it as quite alarming at the election count when it became clear that they had won.
Cllr Lowe tells of almost having a panic attack and her phone buzzing with notifications from friends all day. Cllr Balmer says she was keeping a close eye on the ‘Labour machine’ at the Guild Hall throughout the day as they assessed the situation.
Cllr Lowe says: “For me personally, my family were so proud of me and people at work [night shifts at a petrol station while studying remotely for a masters degree in comedy writing for TV and radio through Falmouth University] are really proud of me as well. Every time my boss comes in in the morning, she says ‘morning councillor’.
“A group of lads who work near us come to the window every night. They came to a window not long after I got elected and said ‘You’re famous’.”
Some of the ceremony and process around becoming an authority was described as ‘a bit archaic’ – echoing thoughts shared by Reform UK in our previous piece – but it’s important to remember that these are mostly people entering local politics for the very first time. Gabie works nights and is studying. Veronica has children and is looking for a job.
Cllr Matthew Brown, who is leader of Preston City Council, describes the authority as a ‘progressive Labour council’ so it is unsurprising that the Green Party councillors see much to support in what they’re trying to do.
They are supportive of plans – criticised by both the Lib Dems and Reform UK – to invest £1m in the establishment of a mutual bank. Likewise, they are pleased about the plans to invest in authority-owned social housing. Those plans received unanimous cross-party support when they were approved with the press and public excluded – but it is unlikely that will always be the case. There will likely be instances where Preston Labour has to rely on the Greens – along with independents who are largely former Labour – to get decisions over the line.
Cllr Lowe says: “What we want to constantly ask is whether there’s a better and Greener way to do things.”
If all of that sounds awfully cosy at a time when politics at all levels is often described as toxic or combative, it has not been completely smooth sailing.
Both Cllr Balmer, a trans woman, and Cllr Lowe, not a trans woman, faced hundreds of comments on Facebook after their victories which varied from unkind to outright abusive. Many of those comments, if not the majority, came from outside of Preston.
Cllr Balmer says: “This is gonna sound really blasé, but actually, it didn’t bother me that much. Facebook is already a cesspit when it comes to comments. It always has been – there’s a reason people say ‘don’t read the comments’. The demographics on Facebook tend to skew towards older people especially on local pages so that didn’t bother me.
“I’ve lived in Preston all the way through my transition and I think I’ve had one bizarre comment. Otherwise, it’s mainly the odd strange look because I’m 6ft4.”
Cllr Lowe adds: “I was getting transphobic comments because people had heard that we’d got a trans councillor. I was thinking: ‘If this is what I’m getting, what in God’s name is Veronica getting?’”
The amiable relationship with Preston Labour does have its limits. Cllr Martyn Rawlinson, the now former deputy leader of Preston City Council but still the cabinet member for resources, was critical of Preston City Council and the Lancashire Post for switching off the comments on posts about Veronica, and Blog Preston for limiting the ability to comment to people who had followed the page for 24 hours.
Cllr Rawlinson’s comments on trans people have been criticised by political opponents over the years, perhaps most notably by then-LGBT officer for Preston Labour Avery Greatorex in 2025. Greatorex, a trans woman, left the Labour Party over concerns not related to Cllr Rawlinson before becoming the chair of the Preston Green Party and overseeing their two election victories in 2026. When she appeared at the hustings event ahead of the local elections, he described her as a ‘bigoted gender extremist’.
Cllr Rawlinson posted to X in the wake of Cllr Balmer’s victory: “TiM [meaning trans-identified male] elected in Preston. Council and both main media outlets turn off commenting on social media. Complete blackout on majority of public stating biological facts.”
Cllr Rawlinson has always fiercely defended himself and maintained that he is stating facts in a personal capacity rather than being discriminatory – something backed up by Preston City Council’s standards committee whenever complaints have been made.
Cllr Balmer says: “It is not unexpected. The majority of Labour have been more than welcoming. The fact that Matthew Brown replaced Martyn with Valerie Wise was a gesture that I do appreciate.
“I don’t think that was a direct result of me being elected and there were other reasons. However, I have seen the comments he made directly after I was elected and they have been reported. They were not general comments, they were specifically aimed at me as a councillor.”
Cllr Lowe adds: “If I was to go online and tweet about my co-workers in the way that Veronica has been tweeted about, I’d get sacked for that. So why should the council have lower standards than a petrol station?”
When Blog Preston reported in the wake of the local elections, and Labour losing its majority, that Green Party support for Matthew Brown and Preston Labour was only possible if Cllr Rawlinson was not deputy leader, the former deputy leader described it as ‘fake news’. The Preston Labour Party Facebook account also put paid advertising behind posts describing the same.
Cllr Lowe says: “What was reported was true. We wouldn’t have supported Labour if Cllr Rawlinson was deputy leader. There was not a chance that I was going to support any administration with him in the role he was in.”
The reason given for Cllr Rawlinson stepping down was that he wanted to spend more time with his family after years of working on policies to counteract austerity, battling for investment when local authorities had their funding slashed and on issues like Preston Guild Hall. He did not pursue continuing as deputy leader after the 2026 local elections.
Cllr Balmer adds: “Ultimately I’m here to try and do some good. If he makes comments in public, they will be reported to the council and the Labour Party. I’m not going to back down but I’m not going to let him stop me from being a good councillor. “
Much of the surge in support for the Green Party can be traced back to Zack Polanski becoming leader. That’s true for both new Green councillors in Preston. Cllr Lowe joined the Green Party after getting into a political debate with her uncle. Cllr Balmer, meanwhile, was a Green member when Caroline Lucas was leader, joined the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, before rejoining the Green Party under Polanski.
She says: “I lost a lot of faith when Streeting wrote for The Sun newspaper. I think Polanski talks sense and has a plan.”
Support has grown for The Green Party in that time. They won a parliamentary by-election in Gorton and Denton earlier this year, though showed less enthusiasm for going head-to-head with PM-in-waiting Andy Burnham in Makerfield. It remains to be seen if the Green Party can maintain positive momentum post-Starmer. One of the most common criticisms about the Green Party is that they, like much of politics, are spending their time focusing on issues not related to the climate.
Cllr Lowe says: “I can see why people might think the Greens have drifted on climate policy. Because we are talking more about other issues. But to make progress on the issue of climate, you need plans for other issues.
“There’s no point in being a one-policy party. And matters like inequality and billionaires are directly relevant to the climate crisis. So it’s not that we are less bothered about the climate, it’s that we’re also bothered about other things.”
Cllr Balmer believes that most aspects of policy feed into climate change one way or another.
She says: “Everything until now has been about putting focus on individual decisions but we want to integrate climate into other policy decisions. If you drive everywhere, you’re not helping the climate.
“But what if you’ve got to drive because public transport is crap? Or you can’t switch to a vegetarian diet because you’re so exhausted from doing two jobs? You can’t take green policy as one isolated thing.”
One of the most talked-about issues in Preston continues to be the mothballed Guild Hall, with Preston City Council exploring its ‘twin track’ approach of whether to repair it or rebuild it. Both councillors see investment in the arts in a broad sense as being important for the wellbeing of Preston.
Cllr Lowe says: “If it’s salvageable, I’d like that. If not, I’d maybe like to see it spent somewhere like the Playhouse or on more outdoor events. My parents met at the Playhouse. It was a classic love story between the stagehand and Dick Whittington. And thirty years later they’re very happily married. To different people, but happily married nonetheless. I’d love to see investment in the arts in Preston whether that is at the Guild Hall or whether it’s better spent elsewhere.”
Cllr Balmer adds: “Preston needs a dedicated cultural centre. A theatre or an arena. Because it is one of the things that we lack. And it needs to be in the city centre. If you want to help local economies, you invest in culture.”
Cllr Lowe is the councillor representing Plungington and says that fly-tipping is a ‘massive problem’ for the area.
She says: “We did a litter pick around Oxheys Recreation Ground and the sheer amount of fly-tipping was really disheartening. A lot of people complain that kids don’t play outside. But we found needles on the floor and you wouldn’t want children out in that environment. We need to look at tackling on a case-by-case basis but also where it is coming from.”
Given both councillors’ support for Preston Labour’s policies (a new £1m cost-of-living support package was announced this week), it is perhaps unsurprising what Cllr Balmer sees as the most pressing issue for the city.
She says: “I think, fundamentally, poverty is the most pressing issue facing Preston. Societal issues mostly stem from there. Not knowing if you can make next month’s rent puts so much stress on a person. And that can make life very uncomfortable for people and children.”
Blog Preston is carrying out interviews with all political parties represented at Preston City Council. We plan to interview the Lib Dems and Conservatives before concluding with Labour.
