DUDLEY Council’s lone Green Party councillor has been elected as the new Deputy Leader of the national party.

Netherton , Woodside and St Andrew’s councillor Will Duckworth, who joined the council at May’s elections, was chosen for the top title on Monday and will work alongside the Party’s new leader, 46-year-old Natalie Bennett.

Speaking about his new role, Will, aged 58, said: “I am thrilled to have been elected as the new Deputy Leader. I am very much looking forward to working with Natalie, who has a clear, strong and exciting vision for our Party.

“It is sometimes said that our policies are only attractive to the middle classes in leafy suburbs. Nothing could be further from the truth. Earlier this year I became the Black Country's first Green Party councillor in a working class Labour stronghold. To me, this clearly showed that people in all walks of life agree with our way of thinking and that can achieve greater electoral success.

“Here in the West Midlands we have gone from having three councillors to thirteen in just two years. I will take particular pleasure in working with local and regional groups to replicate that success, build the membership and strengthen the Party at all levels.”

Cllr Duckworth has also become the Green Party’s lead candidate for the 2014 European elections.