Responding to the news that the price cap for energy bills is set to drop, Green Party Deputy Leader Zack Polanski said,

“£129 off energy bills will be felt as a welcome relief to families up and down the country who are struggling with the cost of living crisis. However, this reduction won’t scratch the surface for many who will still be worrying about how they will heat their houses over the winter ahead. It also highlights the folly of coupling our energy prices to the volatile gas market. Research shows that breaking this market mechanism that ties our energy bills to gas markets added £43 billion to UK energy bills. That’s £367 per household. This one step would allow us to utilise cheap renewable power to provide cheap renewable energy for British homes. Clean, green, renewable power not tied to the old fossil gas market is what we need to bring down bills sustainably.”

Reacting to comments in the Commons today in which Keir Starmer said he wanted to ensure more pensioners are eligible for winter fuel payments, Sian Berry MP said:

“The Prime Minister’s statement shows just how much pressure he is now under, from the public, Greens and others in opposition, and many Labour MPs, to demonstrate he has at least some understanding that his Government’s cuts are hurting people.

“To truly right these many wrongs, the Chancellor must try harder, and use her upcoming fiscal decisions to tax extreme wealth fairly. This could not only restore payments in full to the millions of pensioners Labour has betrayed, but also enable her to reconsider other cruel political choices, including £5 billion in cuts to welfare and her refusal to cancel the two-child benefit cap.

“Together, these u-turns would save hundreds of thousands from being pushed into poverty, and Greens will be making the case for this alongside everyone affected until this Government does the right thing.”

Reacting to the UK-EU deal announced today by the prime minister Keir Starmer, the co-leader of the Green Party, Carla Denyer MP, said:

“Today’s reset is being broadly welcomed by businesses and is good news for UK consumers faced with the cost of living crisis. There is also hope for young people who want to live, work, study and form friendships freely across Europe. 

“The Green Party would like to see an even closer relationship between the UK and EU starting with re-joining the customs union and full freedom of movement across the continent. But today’s agreement is definitely a step in the right direction and moves us forward from a place where Reform and the Tories would like us to stay stuck. Their Brexit betrayal rhetoric shows they are willing to disregard the damage inflicted on the country through Brexit and ignore the fact that the vast majority of the UK public now believe the UK was wrong to leave the EU.”  

Opening a third runway at Heathrow Airport could result in pollution equivalent to an additional 2.4 million tons of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere each year by 2050, according to the government’s own figures released through FOI requests. Responding to this being reported in Politico, Sian Berry MP said,  

“This Labour Government is wildly out of touch with reality. Even with the maximum possible impact of “jet zero” efforts on fuel this expansion remains a climate catastrophe.

“The Net-zero minister is missing in action and his department is shamefully failing to stand up to a misguided Chancellor. 

“No credible net-zero plan can include rampant airport expansion and it’s time Labour looked to the many, many alternative ways to create high-paid green jobs.”

Today, Green Party MPs tabled an amendment to the Conservative Party’s Opposition Day motion on the upcoming UK/EU summit. The Greens called on the government to confront the ongoing damage of Brexit and to use the summit on the 19^th of May as a key step towards practical re-engagement with the EU.

Ellie Chowns, Green MP for North Herefordshire, said:

“Brexiteers promised freedom but delivered decline. Five years on, British families, farmers and firms are paying the price of isolation. At the summit next week, Ministers must choose progress over pride: we must work to re-join the Customs Union, restore the right to live, work and study across Europe, and rebuild the networks that keep Britain secure and prosperous.”

Speaking in the Chamber, co-leader Carla Denyer MP said:

“Given the dire economic impacts of Brexit, including […] the cost of leaving the EU amounting to £1 million an hour in 2022 according to ONS data, will he agree with me that it makes total economic sense for the UK and for the people within it to use next week’s summit to start discussions with the EU on what the process of re-joining might be?” 

Key points of the Green amendment include that this House:

• Regrets the £100 billion annual cost in lost output since leaving the EU and that 14% of UK businesses have been forced to stop trading with the EU entirely since Brexit.
• Notes reduced food and agricultural exports have led to an annual loss of £2.8 billion and that food inflation would be 8% lower had we stayed in the EU.
• Observes that the UK–US agreement fails to compensate for Brexit’s economic damage.
• Notes a confident Britain must work closely with Europe to tackle shared challenges—from the climate crisis to the rise of the hard right.
• Calls on the Government to use the upcoming UK/EU summit to negotiate re-entry to the Customs Union, restore free movement and youth mobility, and rejoin the Erasmus programme.
• Further calls on the government to kick-start talks with the EU on what the formal process to re-join the EU would involve, recognising the consistent majority opinion of the public which reflects a wish to do so.*