9 May 2017

* Lucas exposes the extent of other parties failure to back electoral alliances

* Green leader says her party will shift focus from alliances to ‘winning votes up and down the country’

* Lucas slams Labour’s ‘shameful’ treatment of members wanted to form an alliance against Jeremy Hunt

Caroline Lucas, the co-leader of the Green Party, has slammed both Labour and the Lib Dem’s leadership for failing to fully engage with the idea of electoral alliances despite the strong wishes of their members and the wider public.

Yesterday the Labour Party suspended Steve Williams, a member in Surrey who had advocated for an alliance around a pro-NHS candidate to beat Jeremy Hunt. [1]

Lucas has been at the forefront of efforts to push both Labour and Lib Dems to work together to improve the chances of beating the Tories at the next election and secure a fair voting system for future elections. However, the grassroots campaign have been frustrated by both parties. Labour refused to even meet with the Greens and the Lib Dems engaged but only at an arms length.

The Green Party has stood aside in a number of strategically important seats – thus boosting the chances of candidates such as Lib Dem Sarah Olney in Richmond and Labour’s Rupa Huq in Ealing.

With Labour and the Lib Dems failing to engage with electoral alliances, and nominations for candidates closing this week, the Green Party co-leader says her party will now ‘move on from alliances’ and redouble efforts to win votes across the country.

Lucas said:

“Both Labour and the Lib Dems have betrayed the people they represent by not fully engaging with the idea of electoral alliances.Though the Lib Dems were happy to have informal discussion, they never delivered on ruled any meaningful alliances. Labour were even more intransigent – with no hint from their leadership that they were interested in talking about how we best beat this rotten Tory Government.

“Labour’s treatment of Steve Williams in Surrey is both shameful and shortsighted. There was a real chance to unite around a pro-NHS candidate to beat Jeremy Hunt, but Labour might well have now blown it.”

“Labour and the Lib Dems defied their own members on the ground – and the time has now come for the Greens to focus entirely on winning votes up and down the country.

“Electoral alliances matter because we have a broken political system. We have a Government hellbent on some of the most extreme policies in a generation: a crumbling NHS, a jilted generation of young people being let down and the pursuit of a hardline extreme Brexit.  Our hugely undemocratic electoral system is so stacked in the establishment’s favour that the Tories can win a majority on just 24% of the eligible vote. It’s abundantly clear that to crack open our politics we must hack the system and create a more plural politics.

“Having done what we can, our focus is now entirely on winning votes up and down the country – and sending more MPs to Parliament on June 8th. The other parties have proved in recent weeks that they aren’t fit for the modern political age – and in this election we’re offering voters a chance to back a politics which puts people first to deliver a confident and caring country.

[1] https://twitter.com/SteveWil/status/861655164549312512

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8 May 2017

*Co-leader Jonathan Bartley: “This is getting beyond a joke. The BBC’s love affair with UKIP is getting embarrassing” 

The Green Party has reacted with anger to an announcement today (May 8) that the BBC will feature the leader of UKIP in two dedicated election programmes but will not extend the same invitation to the Green Party. 

Today’s announcement came just days after the BBC breached its own guidelines [1] by giving disproportionate coverage to UKIP when reporting the results of local elections last Thursday. The Green Party has already lodged a formal complaint over the BBC’s failure to give the Green Party coverage “proportionate to the larger parties” and “more than those parties with less evidence of past or current electoral support or fewer candidates”.

Today the BBC announced [3] that Paul Nuttall will be interviewed by Andrew Neil in one of a series of prime time programmes each evening at 7pm throughout the week of 22 May. In addition Mr Nuttall will also be the subject of an ‘Election Questions’ programme on BBC1 on 4 June. 

Jonathan Bartley, Green Party co-leader, said:

“This is getting beyond a joke. The BBC’s love affair with UKIP is getting embarrassing” and it is time it recognised that the Green Party is entitled to a fair hearing in its election programming.”

“As the local election results, in which 150,000 people voted Green compared with less than 100,000 for UKIP [3], demonstrated, when people see what we stand for, they support the Green Party. It’s time the BBC recognised the strength of the Green movement and the widespread support for our positive vision for Britain as a confident and caring country. It is time to stop giving so much air time to UKIP.”

Notes:

1. http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/pdfs/2017localelectionguidelines.pdf

2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2017/general-election?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_press_office&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=corporate

3. http://britainelects.com/results/may2017/

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8 May 2017

The Green Party has condemned the alleged Conservative Party manifesto pledge to cut net migration to tens of thousands [1].

Jonathan Bartley, Green Party co-leader, said:

“The Tories have repeatedly failed to reach this target since it was first in their manifesto in 2010 but in the process have split up families and encouraged hostility towards migrants.

“It’s time the Conservative Party stopped trying to pin the blame for unemployment, the housing shortage and NHS overcrowding on migrants and acknowledged the abject failure of its own policies, cuts and severe underinvestment.”

Notes:

1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39840503

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8 May 2017

*Letter accuses BBC of breaching its fair coverage guidelines

*Greens won 40 seats while UKIP won just 1

*Co-leader Jonathan Bartley: “It’s time the BBC recognised the widespread support for our positive vision for Britain”

The Green Party has today (May 7) sent the BBC a letter of complaint over the broadcaster’s coverage of the May 4 local elections results.

The BBC’s guidelines [1] state the Green Party should receive coverage “proportionate to the larger parties” and “more than those parties with less evidence of past or current electoral support or fewer candidates”.

The Greens fielded a record number of candidates in this round of local elections, overtaking UKIP, [2] and 40 Green councillors were elected, compared to UKIP’s one. However, with the exception of a few items, most of the BBC’s coverage failed to report the Green Party’s results, while giving disproportionate coverage to UKIP.

Jonathan Bartley, Green Party co-leader, said:

“It’s time the BBC recognised the strength of the Green movement and the widespread support for our positive vision for Britain as a confident and caring country. When people see what we stand for, they vote Green.

“While UKIP makes cheap attempts to win headlines with blatantly Islamophobic policies [3], Greens are out making a difference to their local communities and this contrast was made clear in Friday’s election results. The Green Party is making gains across the country – from the Orkney Islands to the Isle of Wight – and it’s only fair we’re given proportionate coverage by our national broadcaster.”

Notes:

1. http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/pdfs/2017localelectionguidelines.pdf
2. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/ukip-overtaken-by-greens-in-english-council-seats-contested-big-drop_uk_58e68cb2e4b0773c0d3f1e26
3. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/ukip-muslim-face-veil_uk_58fdfd2ae4b018a9ce5cdd3b

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6 May 2017

The Green Party has pledged to invest £2bn in renovating and creating safe cycling and walking routes. The funding will be drawn from a cancellation of the Government’s new roads programme which was expected to cost £1.2bn and from environmental taxes which will be used to fight climate change.  

The party argues that Government’s walking and cycling investment strategy [1] does not go far enough. The Greens would make a proper commitment to enabling walking and cycling, while redesigning dangerous junctions and roundabouts.

The party’s announcement, its second major announcement on environmental legislation, comes after a plan for cleaning up Britain’s air [2] was launched yesterday (May 5).

Amelia Womack, Green Party deputy leader, announced the policy at an event in Totnes today, where she also launched the South Devon Green Party’s election campaign.

Womack said:

“While the Government dithers around with half measures and evasion, the Green Party is promising to invest in the solutions we know will clean up our air. We want a walking and cycling revolution to replace the diesel fuelled congestion that’s choking Britain.

“The air quality crisis in the UK is now a public health emergency, costing the NHS billions of pounds. But the Green Party has clear policy solutions which will transform our transport system to take us away from diesel, make polluting companies pay, and rapidly roll out renewables.

“It’s a time to be bold and hopeful – yesterday in the local elections we saw the absolute collapse of UKIP while the Green Party won seats up and down the country. People are ready for something new and only the Greens will build the confident and caring country we need to be.”

The party’s general election candidates are Kathryn Driscoll, Andy Williamson, Win Scutt and Jacqi Hodgson, who was also elected as a councillor in yesterday’s local elections.

Notes:

1. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cycling-and-walking-investment-strategy
2. https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2017/05/05/greens-release-air-pollution-challenge-as-government-unveils-plan/

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