THE Green Party will get their General Election campaign underway in Swindon on Saturday with a launch event at the Olive Tree Cafe in Cheney Manor.

Party members and supporters will come together to hear from their candidates but the event is open to all and the party is hoping to attract people interested in looking beyond the big three political parties.

The Greens are the only party, except the incumbent Conservatives, to have named candidates for both the town's seats.

Talis Kimberley-Fairbourn stood for the Greens in South Swindon in 2015 and increased the party's share of the vote by 2.3 per cent.

She will be looking to better than when she contests the seat again this year.

Andy Bentley, Chairman of the Swindon Area Green Party, has been confirmed as the Green candidate in North Swindon.

In 2015, then candidate Poppy Hebden-Leeder secured an increase in the Green vote and narrowly forced the Lib Dems into fifth place.

In a joint statement, the candidates said: “We were elected by Green Party members in Swindon some months ago in preparation for this day.

" This is an important responsibility, and we both thought long and hard before putting our names forward.

"We’re very proud to be able to offer voters in Swindon the choice of a brighter vision for this country.

“The Green’s party election broadcast went out on the night that the election was called.

"It is a strong call to arms for people who care about fairness in society, our public services, the environment, and the place of Britain in the world.”

“As one of the world’s richest nations we’re ashamed that we have record numbers of people depending on food banks to get by, while huge corporations force up the benefits bill by not paying their staff enough to live on.

"While Green MPs and MEPs like Caroline Lucas and Molly Scott Cato fight tax avoidance in Britain and the EU, this government takes the side of the rich and the powerful, choosing to demonise the poor and vulnerable instead.”

“We believe that the UK should be leading in Europe rather than leaving it. We should be leading internationally by not doing arms deals with human-rights abusers, and must stop environmental protections and workers’ rights from being sacrificed on the altar of dodgy trade deals.”

“There is a better way. We are standing up for what we believe in, to make the world a better place. We’re fighting for a future we can all be proud of.”

Both candidates will be on hand to meet with voters at Saturday's launch event.

It will get underway at 3pm and is open for anyone to attend.

Conservative MPs Robert Buckland and Justin Tomlinson will both be seeking re-election in South and North Swindon respectively.

With parliament now dissolved until after the election, both men have wasted no time in hitting the campaign trail and knocking on doors in their constituencies.

Labour got off to an early start in Swindon by welcoming Jeremy Corbyn to the Central Community Centre last week.

Party members have been out campaigning already but rules laid down by Labour HQ mean that, as yet, no candidates have been confirmed.

An announcement is expected by the middle of next week.

The Lib Dems are also set to field a candidate in North and South Swindon.

Party members held an executive meeting earlier this week to discuss the upcoming contest and the two candidates are expected to be announced on Monday evening.

UKIP, who put up a candidate in both Swindon constituencies in 2015, have yet to confirm if they will do the same this time around.