Carne Ross with Owen Jones

A LEAKED memo earlier in the campaign revealed Greens are not hunting down votes in Islington North where Jeremy Corbyn is standing as an independent against Labour.

But in the south of the borough, the party has canvassers out in Emily Thornberry’s constituency in a bid to get a strong second place.

The different approach was illustrated by political commentator Owen Jones who was supporting Mr Corbyn at a rally in Archway last week, but was on the doorstep with the Greens in Islington South and Finsbury this week where he is supporting the party’s candidate Carne Ross.

“We’ve found that there are a lot of ex-Labour people who are wanting to vote Green because they are very disillusioned with Labour for abandoning some of their core policies,” said Mr Ross about the south of the borough and cited Labour rowing back on a £28billion green investment package.

The Greens have proposed £170billion in tax rises to pay for improvements to the NHS, schools and social care.

Mr Ross is a former senior British diplomat who resigned over the Iraq war, and has written extensively about the need for direct democracy, and anarchism.

Mr Ross said: “I believe in a different political system. I believe that people should have power in their own hands. Bottom-up democracy, that’s what we should have in Britain.”

Mr Ross added that if he were elected in Islington South he would organise citizens assemblies in an effort to restore agency to constituents.

He admitted, however, that his party are realistic about their election prospects in Islington South.

“We’re not stupid,” Mr Ross said. “We know we’re not going to win the seat.”

Organisers, however, say they have a long-term strategy, aiming to slowly build local support that will extend nationally. They gained 74 seats in May’s council elections, boosting their total number to over 800 councillors across the UK, including three in Islington.