Greens accuse Labour of being a ‘bystander to Conservative chaos’
Labour under Keir Starmer has become so timid it is a “bystander to the Conservatives’ chaos”, the co-leaders of the Greens have said in a joint speech that kicked off a potentially pivotal annual conference for the party.
Speaking to members in Brighton, Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay accused the government of “playing cynical political games” with the climate emergency – and Labour of quietly acquiescing.
“No matter what new climate crime or damaging policy the government comes up with, Labour somehow manages to disappoint us just as much,” Ramsay said. “Time after time, they come out swinging at the Conservatives, and then when asked: ‘Does that mean you’ll reverse these decisions if you make it into government?’ – radio silence. They are bystanders to the Conservatives’ chaos.”
With a policy platform including a pledge for tenants to be able to force landlords to properly insulate their homes, the Green party in England and Wales is using its likely last gathering before the next election to launch a target to quadruple its complement of MPs, from one to four.
However, some Greens are worried they could instead drop to zero, given a strong Labour challenge in their sole seat of Brighton Pavilion after Caroline Lucas, the incumbent MP, announced she was stepping down.
The party will go into the election with an expanded and honed campaigning team, one that has delivered four times as many Green councillors as in 2019. The party now completely runs one council, Mid Suffolk, and is part of the administration in another 36, all of which were listed by Ramsay during the speech.
Denyer used her sections of the speech to accuse the Conservatives of “doubling down on their climate vandalism”, and also of “falsely pitting the cost of living against the cost of net zero”. On the latter point, she said, UK energy bills would be £2.5bn a year lower if the government had properly invested in green policies over the last decade.
In a speech that used the repeated refrain “we can do better than this”, the pair also castigated Labour for abandoning poorer voters by ruling out any form of tax on wealth, thus limiting their fiscal choices.
“They’re turning their backs on the voters who so desperately need them to rise to the scale of the challenge,” Ramsay said. “They claim to have done this in the name of fiscal responsibility. But what’s responsible about letting 250,000 children grow up in poverty by keeping the Tories’ cruel two-child benefit cap?”
The speech included proposals for a tax on the wealth of the very richest, as well as an expanded windfall tax, and to bring water companies back into public ownership.
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The housing pledge, which includes a £145bn investment over 10 years to retrofit homes, with government-backed loans for those not eligible for a grant, comes amid what Denyer called a “perfect storm” of housing crises – noting that this was a subject Rishi Sunak failed to mention once in his conference speech on Wednesday.
Unlike the Labour and Tory conferences, Green policy is set by members. Among ideas being debated at the three-day conference are a ban on advertising “high-carbon products”; forcing companies to put environmental concerns before profits; a four-day working week; and a ban on greyhound racing.
In a sign of the difficulties the party faces on funding, another proposal is to nearly double membership fees to raise money for the election campaign.