Green Party

10 June 2017

Amelia Womack, deputy leader of the Green Party, has warned that a coalition between the Conservatives and the DUP is bad news for women everywhere.

The DUP has 10 MPs and received fewer than 300,000 votes. Womack’s party returned just one MP – Caroline Lucas in Brighton Pavilion – this week despite getting more than 500,000 votes.

Womack said:

“The Tory-DUP coalition of cruelty is bad news for women. We may have seen a record number of women gain seats in the Parliament this week, but the 10 MPs of the anti-abortion, anti-equal marriage DUP look set to have a disproportionate influence which should concern us all.

“The DUP’s obstruction to legal abortion in Northern Ireland has left many women in dire circumstances, forced to travel to England where they are not entitled to NHS-funded terminations or face prosecution for seeking help at home.

“It is deeply concerning that a party responsible for so much pain could be in a position to exert so much influence. Women’s rights are under threat and we must work together to stop a lurch to the right under a Tory-DUP alliance.”

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8 June 2017

Caroline Lucas said:

“This exit poll is remarkable. If true then the Tory’s mandate is seriously in question. Any Green MPs elected tonight will do all they can to keep the Tories from Number 10, and back a Labour-led Government on a case by case basis.

“In the coming hours we will see if the Greens’ leadership on progressive alliance has come to fruition, but early suggestions from seats such as Brighton Kemptown suggest that our actions have had a truly meaningful consequence. Whatever happens we’re proud that we have worked with others in a handful of seats for the best chance of beating the Tories.”

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7 June 2017

*Co-leader Jonathan Bartley: “Sacrificing our human rights in the name of fighting terrorism is exactly what terrorists want”

The Green Party has condemned Theresa May’s comments on human rights laws [1] and accused her of playing into terrorists’ hands by threatening civil liberties.

Jonathan Bartley, Green Party co-leader, will today speak at the party’s final rally ahead of the election [2] and call May’s threat to human rights a disgrace.

Bartley said:

“Sacrificing our human rights in the name of fighting terrorism is exactly what terrorists want. May is exploiting people’s fear to do away with hard-won protections that don’t suit her regressive agenda. There is no shortage of laws designed to clamp down on terrorism and responsibility for the failure to use these lies with the Government. There’s no point building more and more walls if we end up boxing ourselves in.

“If May throws away our freedoms she is letting the terrorists win. Proposing to tear up human rights laws is a knee jerk reaction and could be dangerously counterproductive. We can tackle terrorism without impinging on human rights but we need an honest conversation about the causes of terrorism and to ask some hard questions about the impact of UK foreign policy and police cuts.

“I’m calling on people across the UK to vote with their hearts for the kind of country they want. The Green Party stands for a confident and caring country, and we’ll always stand up for human rights and fight for an inclusive, tolerant society with a positive vision for the future.”

Notes

1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-40181444
2. Jonathan Bartley will join Molly Scott Cato, Bristol West candidate, and Green Party activists for a rally at 2pm in front of the party’s mobile billboard at College Green, Bristol BS1 5TA.

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7 June 2017

*Co-leader Jonathan Bartley: “Only the Green Party will fix the NHS crisis and invest in education”

The Green Party will today call on voters to make a decision based on what kind of country they want Britain to be when they go to the polls on June 8.

Jonathan Bartley, Green Party co-leader, will join Molly Scott Cato, Bristol West candidate, for the party’s final rally before the election [1] to set out why a Green vote matters.

Speaking ahead of the event, Bartley said:

“No matter where you’re casting your vote on election day, you have the chance to put issues you care about on the agenda – from climate change to Brexit. Only the Green Party will fix the NHS crisis and invest in education.

“My message to voters ahead of tomorrow is to vote with your heart, and vote Green. If we wake up to a Conservative government on June 9, Green MPs will hold them to account, whether it’s by calling out the government for bringing the NHS to its knees or fighting an extreme Brexit. We’d be making sure a Labour government delivered on the bold promises in its manifesto – and taking them even further.

“I’m calling on people across the UK to vote not just for the MP they want, but the kind of country they want. The Green Party stands for a caring a confident country, that invests in public services, protects the environment and would give the people of Britain a say on the final Brexit deal. We’ll always stand up for what matters and fight for an inclusive, tolerant society with a positive vision for a sustainable future.”

Notes:

1. Jonathan Bartley will join Molly Scott Cato and Green Party activists for a rally at 2pm in front of the party’s mobile billboard at College Green, Bristol BS1 5TA.

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6 June 2017

* Jonathan Bartley: “The ‘special relationship’ with Saudi Arabia has to end”

* Event details: 2.30pm, ExCel London, One Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock, London E16 1XL

Jonathan Bartley, co-leader of the Green Party, will give a speech in London about arms sales calling on the new Prime Minister to suspend sales to Saudi Arabia on their first day in post. 

Bartley will say that Britain’s foreign policy cannot be divorced from counter-terrorism and that the UK must end its special relationship with Saudi Arabia – a country which turns a “blind eye while weapons flow freely to D’aesh”.

Saudi Arabia has been accused of causing the vast majority of civilian deaths in the conflict in Yemen, including with weapons sold to the Saudi dictatorship by the UK Government [1]. Since March 2015, when Saudi Arabia intervened in the civil war in Yemen, the UK has licensed £3.3bn worth of arms to the Saudi regime [2].

In a speech to supporters outside ExCel London, where the world’s biggest arms fair DSEI is held, Bartley will ask why no one is holding the Prime Minister to account for the human rights abuses of the Saudi regime, and their regimes complicity with Islamic extremism.

With the UK currently the second biggest arms dealer in the world [3], Bartley will also promise that Green MPs elected this week will campaign to suspend all arms sales to countries which are violating human rights.

Jonathan Bartley, Green Party co-leader, is expected to say:

“The British Government’s cosy relationship with Riyadh must end. The Saudi Regime is a human rights abuser and turns a blind eye while weapons flow into the hand of terrorists.  In the wake of the horrific and despicable acts of terrorism we have seen in the last three months we need to have an honest conversation about foreign policy and realise it cannot be divorced from counter-terrorism. It is a national shame that the UK sells arms to a regime that looks away while weapons flow freely to D’aesh.

“I appeal to the leader that takes the keys to Number 10 on Friday to spend their first day in office making an attempt to begin righting this atrocity by immediately suspending all arms sales to Saudi Arabia. And I make voters this promise: Green MPs elected this week will always campaign for the UK to suspend arms sales to countries which are violating human rights – this is the absolute minimum requirement of a confident and caring nation.”

1. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/23/uk-in-denial-over-saudi-arms-sales-being-used-in-yemen-claims-oxfam

2. https://www.caat.org.uk/media/press-releases/2017-04-03

3. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/britain-is-now-the-second-biggest-arms-dealer-in-the-world-a7225351.html

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