26 September 2022

Green Party deputy leader Zack Polanski has welcomed the news that Labour members have voted overwhelmingly to ditch the first past the post system (FPTP) and replace it with proportional representation (PR) at general elections.

Polanski said:

“It’s promising to see Labour members vote overwhelmingly to join with the rest of Europe and embrace modern, fair and proportional elections in the UK. However, it’s disappointing that Keir Starmer appears to remain unmoved by the democratic rights of his own members. 

“The Labour leadership needs to honour the wishes of members – as well as a growing number of unions and many Labour MPs – by ending their defence of a broken first past the post system. 

“Two party politics is long dead. We are in an era of multi-party politics, particularly for those who support progressive centre-left policies. It is in the interests of both Labour and the majority of the British public for their Party to embrace PR. 

“If Keir Starmer does not listen to his members and back PR, it will leave him ensuring future Tory victories. 

“We should have done away with the current completely undemocratic voting system long ago. As the former shadow chancellor, John McDonnell said today, ‘we can’t go on like this because the system is so unfair’, while Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, pointed out that PR has worked just fine for Wales.” 

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23 September 2022

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay today condemned the mini-budget as a tax giveaway that will leave millions of families struggling to put food on the table and to heat their homes this winter. 

He said:

“The Chancellor has shown his priorities – a cash bonanza for bankers, polluters and the wealthy, leaving millions to face rising prices, soaring rents and higher mortgages.

“At a time when so many are anxious about how they and their families will make it through the winter, we are horrified to see this government cutting taxes for the wealthy and for corporations. 

“These are the groups that have benefited during the pandemic and they should be contributing more, not less, in these hard times. 

“Borrowing from future taxpayers to fund today’s banker bonuses and cash bonanzas for the rich is an outrage. 

“This discredited trickle-down economics is backed only by a small number of maverick economists. We are a society with a record number of billionaires [1], yet working people face the largest falls in their incomes for 100 years [2]. Rather than trickling down, wealth is being concentrated amongst the super-rich.

“The cost of these Tory tax cuts will be higher interest rates, suppressed wages and cuts to vital public services. People and the planet will pay a very high price for this economic and environmental vandalism.

“We need a tax on super profits, the dirty profits of the fossil fuel companies and the super rich. And we need to cap higher wages to no more than 10 times the average wage.

“Together, these reforms would fund investment in a fairer, greener country. “

Mr Ramsay also urged a “dramatic and immediate national programme of domestic and business insulation” to kick start a growth in green jobs. [3]

“Insulation investment would save people money, reduce energy use and help save the planet. Just imagine what would be possible with a national insulation drive funded by taxes on the super rich and super profits.” [4]

The Green Party also pointed out that UK homes lose three times as much heat as a home in Norway, despite Norway being much colder [5].

NOTES

1

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/may/21/number-of-billionaires-in-uk-reached-new-record-during-covid-pandemic 

2

 https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/11/biggest-uk-fall-real-wages-100-years-looms-tuc-inflation

3

Our March 2022 Budget plans set out the scale of the opportunity – “A £250 billion investment plan to provide local authorities with the funding to retrofit 10 million homes within a decade and provide insulation improvements to every home that needs it”. That was based on our 2029 General Election commitment to fund local authorities to better

insulate all homes and deep retrofit  of 1 million homes a year at the cost of £24.6 billion.

4

Greens are proposing:

• A “dirty profits tax” – a super tax on the grotesque profits of oil and gas companies to ensure that everyone has a warm home this winter
• Raise taxes on the highest incomes
• Higher taxes on the wealthy
• Cuts to dividends for shareholders
• An uplift in Universal Credit by £40 a week
• An increase in the minimum wage
• A pay increase in line with inflation for 2.5 million public sector workers, including teachers, nurses, doctors, police officers, and members of the armed forces

5

https://www.tado.com/gb-en/press/uk-homes-losing-heat-up-to-three-times-faster-than-european-neighbours 

ENDS

For more information or to arrange an interview contact the press office on press@greenparty.org.uk or call 0203 691 9401

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22 September 2022

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said: 

“Fracking will deepen our country’s dependence on fossil fuels. It will not bring down fuel bills for people who are struggling and will cause more damage to local communities and to the climate.

“The government has chosen to ignore warnings from its own advisers that fracking cannot restart without significant dangers of renewed localised earthquakes.[1] 

“The most effective and sustainable way of bringing down the cost of living is to invest in insulating houses and massively ramping up home-grown renewable energy. Fracking is an expensive and dangerous distraction from that urgent goal.”

Notes

1

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/15/liz-truss-to-lift-fracking-ban-despite-little-progress-on-earthquake-risk

For more information or to arrange an interview contact the press office on press@greenparty.org.uk or call 0203 691 9401

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21 September 2022

Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP for Brighton Pavilion, has the following response to BEIS Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg’s statement on energy bills support for businesses:

“No wonder Jacob Rees-Mogg clearly wished to avoid Parliamentary scrutiny on this critical energy crisis support for businesses – there is an energy efficiency-shaped hole at the heart of this plan that needs to be exposed.

“The cheapest and cleanest energy for businesses is the energy they don’t use – so why is Rees-Mogg’s plan utterly devoid of essential energy efficiency measures to help businesses reduce their dependence on costly fossil fuels, slashing bills and carbon emissions at the same time?

“Businesses themselves know the importance of net zero, even if climate sceptic Rees-Mogg doesn’t – and on a day when over 100 of the UK’s top businesses have called specifically for energy efficiency, a roll-out of renewables and large-scale industrial decarbonisation, this plan strips out green levies and continues with fossil fuel business-as-usual.

“The first rule of business is to plan ahead – and for this plan to send businesses off a cliff edge come April, when we know this energy crisis could get much worse in the months and years ahead, is irresponsible in the extreme.

“We can’t expect small businesses to just keep lurching from one crisis to another – from Brexit, to Covid, and now an energy bills crisis. There are so many ways in which businesses could have been supported for the long term today: an extension of business rates relief for all SMEs and pubs; a suspension of Covid loan debt repayments; funding and incentives to help with planned energy use reduction. Instead all they get is sweeping fossil-fuelled short-termism.”

ENDS

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8 September 2022

The Green Party of England and Wales has expressed sincere condolences to the entire Royal Family following the extremely sad news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. 

Co-leader Adrian Ramsay said: “This is a moment of great sadness for our nation. 

“The Queen served this country tirelessly over her 70-year reign, bearing witness to the fall of the Berlin Wall, invention of the internet and the first man on the moon.

“We send strength and compassion to the Royal family at this difficult time.”

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