25 June 2021

The Green Party has criticised the apparent U-turn by Labour on its pledge to provide free social care. It comes in the wake of comments by Shadow Cabinet Minister and MP for Bristol West Thangam Debbonaire, who said fulfilling the Labour promise to disabled and older people would be too expensive.[1]

Peter Cranie, the Green Party’s Health, Social Care and Public Health spokesperson reacted by saying:

“The Greens have always advocated for a move towards an integrated health and social care programme with an explicit commitment that people should not have to sell their homes to pay for care.

“We can’t get away from the fact that more funding is needed in social care – even under the current system. The Conservatives, and now Labour, are trying to swerve the issue entirely so they don’t have to address where the extra money will come from. When the country is crying out for principled opposition, Labour is providing none in order to avoid talking about tax or cutting wildly overinflated budgets like defence. 

“The NHS was the health legacy of the second world war and there is an opportunity now to make a social care programme that is actually linked in with health care and provides people with the support they need, a legacy of the recovery from the Covid pandemic.”

Among other social care commitments, the Green Party would invest £4.5 billion a year to fund council provision of free social care for people over 65 who need support in their own homes. 

The Greens are also the only major party to back a 15% rise in pay for NHS healthcare workers.[2]

Carla Denyer, the Green Party’s Housing and Communities spokesperson and MP candidate for Bristol West, said: 

“To see this U-turn from Labour is a real kick in the teeth for disabled people and the older people in our communities. Our policies on social care – just like all our policies in the Green Party – are based on giving people the opportunities and support that they’re entitled to, that are fair and offer dignity, not on whether the Tories will criticise us for them. That’s no way to do politics!”

ENDS 

[1]https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/labour-says-calling-for-free-social-care-would-just-give-tories-a-stick-to-beat-us-with/

[2]https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2021/03/06/green-party-supports-calls-for-15-pay-rise-for-nhs-workers/

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23 June 2021

• Councillor Joanna Wright defects to the Greens from the Liberal Democrats
• Recognises Greens as party taking real action on the climate emergency
• Councillor Wright said: “Working hard for the people of Lambridge is what I will always put first”

The Greens in Bath and North East Somerset are pleased to announce that councillor Joanna Wright has rejoined the party after a two year period as a member of the Liberal Democrats.

Her defection resulted from disillusionment with the Liberal Democrats’ handling of active travel schemes on Bath & North East Somerset Council, which she considered to contravene commitments set out by the Party in their 2019 general election manifesto. 

Bath resident Councillor Wright recognises the Greens as the party taking real action on the climate emergency and social justice in tandem, and has rejoined her true political home with this defection.

Councillor Wright now sits as the sole Green Party councillor on Bath & North East Somerset council, meaning that the Party now has representation on 142 councils across England and Wales.

Councillor Wright said:

“I am proud to be rejoining the Green Party after a short period as a Liberal Democrat. During my two years as an elected councillor, I have been disappointed to discover that the Liberal Democrats are not as serious about the climate emergency as they claim, something which was made clear by local Liberal Democrats undermining their 2019 manifesto commitments on low carbon transport.

“I have always believed that being true to one’s principles is important, so I have made the decision to return to the Green Party with whom I share a set of core values. Recent Green Party gains in Bristol have demonstrated that increasing numbers of people share a commitment to social, economic and environmental justice. It has become clear in the 2021 local elections that the Green Party is now the third party of England.

“My role as a councillor will continue to be listening to the views and concerns of local residents, and working hard for the people of Lambridge is what I will always put first.”

Councillor Wright was elected as a councillor in 2019 and was the Lib Dems’ Joint Cabinet Member for Transport. She also sat on the West England Combined Authority Transport board and the Western Gateway Sub-Regional Transport Board.

She has been a strong campaigner for clean air in the region and was a key advocate for both WECA and B&NES putting in their climate emergency motions.

Green Party deputy leader Amelia Womack said:

“Joanna’s decision to rejoin the Green Party shows that we are continuing to gain ground after the record breaking results in the nationwide May elections, towards becoming England’s third party.

“I’m delighted that Joanna has returned to her true political home in the Green Party – the only party committed to real climate action and lasting social justice. 

“I know that she will continue to listen to the local people of Lambridge, act as a champion of the local community, and deliver real change for the people that need it most. Welcome home, Joanna.”

ENDS

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16 June 2021

Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley has responded to the new risk evaluation report from the Climate Change Committee.

The report warns that the UK is less prepared now than it was five years ago for the escalating effects of the climate crisis on people and wildlife. [1]

Bartley said:

“The CCC’s worrying risk assessment reminds us that we can’t pretend we’re somehow insulated from climate change here in the UK, or that the impacts are far off in the future – the risks are ramping up right here, right now.

“Even more worrying is the fact that the Government just doesn’t get it. It’s clear that we need to go much further to decarbonise our economy much faster, but the Government is scrapping the green homes scheme, spending billions on new roads, and continuing to subsidise the fossil fuel industry.

“Our response to Covid shows that Governments can respond to a threat like climate change – we can invest, we can intervene, we can protect people – but it requires the political will. As we recover from the Covid crisis, we must tackle the imminent threat of the climate crisis.”

Notes

1

Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk

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11 June 2021

• Ahead of the G7 leaders’ summit, Greens urge UK government to show real action on climate change and adopt carbon tax and dividend proposal
• Jonathan Bartley: “The world’s scientists are telling us that we have to cut fossil fuel usage far more quickly than we are doing at the moment. But we also know that if fossil fuels remain falsely cheap, they will continue to be burned”

The Green Party has urged the UK government to show true leadership ahead of the G7 leaders’ summit and commit to making major polluters pay for the damaging greenhouse gases they emit.

The Greens have calculated the UK government would raise around £80 billion of revenue a year if it adopted the party’s proposal for a carbon tax and dividend.

The party estimates the UK will be responsible for around 800 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2021 [1]. Its proposal for a carbon tax and dividend, starting at £100 per tonne of CO2e, would mean up to £80 billion would be generated, which could then be used to invest in the big changes needed for a rapid transition to a zero carbon economy, and to support UK residents through the transition. [2]

Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley said:

“This really is crunch time for the climate. As the world comes out of the pandemic, we urgently need to make far-reaching changes at an international level that can help avoid a much worse, and irreversible, catastrophe. The G7 needs to show that it’s more than just a cosy and very expensive club for the leaders of the richest nations.

“The world’s scientists are telling us that we have to cut fossil fuel usage far more quickly than we’re doing at the moment. But we also know that if fossil fuels remain falsely cheap, they will continue to be burned.”

Figures from the insurance industry and the Royal Society of Physicians indicate that the combined costs of flood and storm damage, together with the effects of air pollution from fossil fuels, added up to more than £23 billion for the UK alone [3]. The figure for the world as a whole is estimated at more than £2 trillion. [4]

Bartley said:

“One crucial part of the solution is an internationally agreed framework of carbon tax – in other words, tax paid by the producers of fossil fuels and applied at the point of extraction or import.

“The big producers of oil and gas have made massive profits from pouring greenhouse gases into the world’s atmosphere – the top four oil companies alone have made more than $2 trillion in profit since 1990.

“Meanwhile, the damage to people’s health, homes and livelihoods continues to climb ever higher. This has to stop if billions of people around the world are to have any chance of a viable future.”

ENDS

Notes

1

The Green Party has calculated the UK will be responsible for around 800 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2021 – 520m tonnes of production emissions, including aviation and shipping; an additional 30m tonnes for the high altitude factor on aviation; and 302m tonnes from imports.

2

The Green Party included its carbon tax and dividend in its 10 point climate plan published last year: https://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/Communications/10_Point_Climate_Plan.pdf

3

Catastrophe insurance data provider PERILS estimates the total cost of wind and flood damage during the 2019/2020 UK winter at approximately £778 million:

https://www.reinsurancene.ws/perils-sets-final-368mn-estimate-for-feb-2020-uk-floods/

The Royal College of Physicians report, “Reducing air pollution in the UK: Progress report 2018” calculated the total annual health and societal costs of air pollution in the UK at £22.6 billion: 

https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/outdoor-air-quality-uk-position-statement#footnote4_21geeyb

4

Greenpeace estimates the total cost of air pollution globally (in terms of cost to health services, lost economic activity etc) as $2.9 trillion, or just over £2 trillion. 

https://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaign/tracking-cost-air-pollution/

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8 June 2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

The Global Greens will host an international online event this week ahead of the G7 in Cornwall, UK. The Burning Questionsforum will bring together Greens from around the world who have experience in government and legislature, in a bid to find solutions to the most urgent and serious global crises.

The discussion will highlight Green leadership on key themes of the G7 Summit including: the Climate and Ecological Emergency and the two Green demands from G7 and COP26 – Carbon Tax and Dividend, and Climate Justice. The forum will also provide a platform for voices from the Global South who are typically excluded from G7 deliberations.

GPEW spokesperson on Finance and Economy Molly Scott Cato said: “We’re clear that the G7, at best, isn’t going to go far enough and at worst it’s a talking shop that won’t lead to any concrete action. 

“What the Global Greens are doing is presenting an alternative and addressing the really tangible way that action could be taken right now to tackle the climate crisis and make people’s live better in the process.”

Speakers at the event include:

• Elizabeth May, Member of Parliament & Parliamentary leader of Canadian Greens
• Teanau Tuiono, Member of Parliament, Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand
• Alejandro Aguilera, Member of Parliament, Movimiento Ecológico de Venezuela 
• Martin Ogindo, Party Leader of Green Congress of Kenya
• Dorothy Nalubega, African Coordinator for Global Greens Women’s network 
• Evelyne Huytebroeck, Co-Chair of the European Green Party

ENDS 

Notes to editors 

Media and the public are invited to register to view the proceedings and submit questions. 

Register: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XVEncBsvSBekwlK1FuFUzw

The Global Greens is the partnership of the world’s Green parties and political movements, working cooperatively to implement the Global Greens Charter. This unique and inspiring document sets out our core values of ecological wisdom, social justice, participatory democracy, nonviolence, sustainability and respect for diversity.

Media Contacts:

Molly Scott Cato: molly.scott.cato@greenparty.org.uk  

Alice Hubbard: cop26convenor@globalgreens.org

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