Green Party won't be fielding candidate for Scarborough and Whitby in December 12 General Election

A spokesman for the party, which got 915 votes in 2017, said it had not made a pact with Labour, which is trying to overturn a 3,435 Conservative majority, but did praise its candidate’s green credentials.

Mark Vesey, a former Green councillor on Scarborough Borough Council and spokesman for the Greens locally, said this decision was a “one-off”.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I think there are a lot of important issues in this forthcoming election and I think really what it came down to for the Green Party is that we are a small party in Scarborough and we really do not have the funds to run a general election campaign in December. That is the long and the short of it.

“It is up to individual Green Party voters as to who they back and hopefully they will make a decision that will be the best one for Scarborough.

“We do know the Labour candidate Hugo Fearnley is very green and has very green leanings so that is something I’m sure people will take into account.”

Asked directly if trying to help the Labour Party was a factor in the party’s decision Mr Vesey admitted it played a part.

He added: “I think that was at the back of our minds but it is not an official line we have taken up as party.

“It is up to each individual to vote how they see fit but Hugo has come to some of the climate strike protests and he seems very supportive of our climate, which is probably a more important issue than Brexit in the long term.”

Mr Vesey said the Green Party would now focus its efforts on the North Yorkshire County Council elections in 2021, as it looks to secure its first county councillor.

He said: “We will be standing two candidates in the county in 2021. It is unbelievable that with the pressures we are facing in the county when it comes to fracking and everything else that we have no Green representative. So we will be looking to change that.

“We will be fielding a candidate in the next general election. This is a one-off decision.”

Conservative Robert Goodwill will be defending his majority in December having been the constituency’s MP since 2005. Mr Fearnley is standing for Labour with the Liberal Democrats confirming its 2017 candidate Robert Graham Lockwood will also be on the ballot on December 12.

Earlier this year, the Brexit Party announced Robert Andersen as its candidate.