Green Party wins first ever UK parliamentary seat

The Green Party made its most significant political breakthrough in Britain on Friday when it won its first ever national parliamentary seat in the southern English seaside city of Brighton.

Caroline Lucas, the environmental party's leader and a Member of the European Parliament for South East England, won the Brighton Pavilion seat, overturning a Labour majority of 5,000 in the process.

"Tonight the people of Brighton Pavilion have made history by electing Britain's first Green MP," a jubilant Lucas said. "Thank you so much for putting the politics of hope above the politics of fear.

The Greens have already found a foothold in Brighton, best known as the gay capital of Britain and renowned for its beaches, royal palace and seaside pier. It already had a number of councillors on the local authority.

The Greens have enjoyed success in European elections in the past but had failed to convert that support into electoral success in national polls.

With more than three-quarters of the national results announced, the Greens had taken just under 1 percent of the vote, about the same as at the last election in 2005.