Greens pledge to halt ‘all new fossil fuel projects’ and tax top 1% in manifesto

The Greens have pledged to stop “all new fossil fuel projects” in the UK as they launched their manifesto promising to “be more ambitious than any other party”.

Co-leaders of the party Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer also pledged to “mend broken Britain” by overhauling the tax system at their manifesto launch event in Brighton and Hove.

The party’s proposed a Green Economic Transition plan to upgrade homes across the UK to increase their energy efficiency, which they say will make them warmer and cheaper to run.

The Greens have previously promised to spend £50 billion per year on health and social care by 2030, and to protect the climate for future generations and “bring nature back to life”.

At their manifesto launch on Wednesday, Mr Ramsey said the climate crisis has been “pretty much absent from this election campaign so far”.

He said: “The other parties are running away from their promises on climate. Only the Greens understand that the solutions to the climate crisis are also the solutions to the cost-of-living crisis.

“The climate crisis is the most serious we face as a global community. Our commitment to you is that protecting our climate and nature lies at the heart of all of our policies.”

He added: “We would stop all new fossil fuel projects in the UK and cancel those that have been recently licensed like Rosebank.

“We would be more ambitious than any other party when it comes to renewable energy, investing to ensure that our energy can come from wind and solar power. A secure energy supply and action on the climate crisis go hand in hand.

“Our investments in public transport, support the switch to electric vehicles and homes heated without fossil fuels means we would put this country on path to being net zero years ahead of other parties.

“The science is clear, the desire from voters is clear. Now we need representatives in parliament who are ambitious enough to make it a reality.”

The Green manifesto pledges a wealth tax of 1% annually on assets above £10 million and of 2% on assets above £1 billion.

Along with other tax measures – such as removing the upper earning limit that restricts the amount of national insurance paid by high earners – the party estimates it could raise an additional revenue of between £50-70 billion.

Ms Denyer said her party would “overhaul our tax system to make it fairer”.

She added: “At the heart of this would be a tax on the very richest, the top 1% of people requiring them to pay a bit more into the pot. From the Tories and Labour, we’ve been hearing a race to the bottom on tax.

“They think two pence off here and a penny off there will impress voters and they think that people won’t cotton on that this means even more devastating cuts to public services like the NHS that we rely on every day.”

Caroline Lucas was previously the Green Party’s only MP, she represented the Brighton Pavilion constituency since 2010.

Mr Ramsay said the party is “realistic” that it does “not expect to form the next government”.

He said: “When the Conservatives are booted out of Number 10 on July 4 and Labour take over, we plan to be there in parliament in greater numbers to speak up for you on the issues that you care about – like a revitalised NHS, bold action on the climate and a fair economy.

“Because with more Green MPs in parliament, we will push Labour to stop backtracking on their promises.

“We will be there to drive them to be braver, to be more ambitious, not to take timid baby steps towards change but to actually do what’s necessary to fix our country and get us back on track.”

Finishing off their speech, he said: “So this is our offer to voters – a manifesto that lays out exactly what real hope and real change looks like. An ambitious but realistic plan for the future that we can be proud of.”

Concerns had previously been raised surrounding a now-dropped policy to reduce medical interventions in childbirth.

In response to this, North Herefordshire candidate Ellie Chowns said: “I’m really sorry that there’s been any kind of anxiety caused about that, I think that’s not representative of what we are standing for.”

She added “The Green Party has thousands of pages of policy which has been made over decades, we’re the only party where policy making is done democratically by members.

“But that’s not the policy that we’re standing on at this election.”

Brighton Pavilion candidate Sian Berry confirmed that four candidates had been de-selected because of antisemitism allegations.

She told the PA news agency: “Four candidates have had allegations and things they’ve said looked at, and have now stood aside or been asked to stand aside and replaced by other candidates in this election.

“Every case is looked at by an independent group within the Green Party. Candidates and leaders have no role in that, quite rightly.

“There are other candidates who have been reported and there may be proportionate things that are done with them as well, such as asking them to be educated. We take every single allegation like this properly seriously and we have good proper processes for dealing with it.”

Concerns had previously been raised surrounding a now-dropped policy to reduce medical interventions in childbirth.

In response to this, North Herefordshire candidate Ellie Chowns said: “I’m really sorry that there’s been any kind of anxiety caused about that, I think that’s not representative of what we are standing for.”

She added: “The Green Party has thousands of pages of policy which has been made over decades, we’re the only party where policy-making is done democratically by members.

“But that’s not the policy that we’re standing on at this election.”