The Green Party have launched their General Election manifesto, with promises to stop “all new fossil fuel projects”, overhaul the tax system and give “rights to nature itself”.
– The economy
The Green Party has pledged to raise taxes for the wealthiest in society and mend “broken Britain” in its election manifesto.
A tax on multimillionaires and billionaires will be used to raise additional revenue of between £30-70 billion to help fund improvements to health, housing, transport and the green economy, the party said.
In its manifesto, the Greens also said “privatisation has failed” and promised to bring water companies, railways and the five big retail energy companies into state ownership.
Other measures include a pledge to invest £40 billion a year to shift to a green economy, a £12.4 billion investment pledge in green skills and training, and a carbon tax to drive down emissions – all during the next parliament.
The Green Party said it will “accelerate clean energy investment and delivery” by cancelling recent oil and gas licences such as those for the Rosebank oil and gas field, removing all oil and gas subsidies and stopping all new fossil fuel extraction projects in the UK.
The party also said it wants to see “the phase-out of all nuclear energy” and will push for wind to provide 70% of UK energy by 2030.
– Nature
On nature, the party has outlined extensive plans to protect and restore the UK’s environment by “giving rights to nature itself”.
The party will work to end the sewage scandal, extend people’s access to nature with a new English Right to Roam Act, and end the emergency authorisation of bee-killing pesticides.
On protecting animals and habitats, elected MPs will call for an end to all blood sports, badger culling, factory farming, routine use of antibiotics in farm animals and close confinement in cages.
For more on agriculture, the Greens have pledged to “work with farmers and other stakeholders to transform our food and farming system”.
Their manifesto includes measures such as almost tripling financial support for farmers to transition to nature-friendly farming, improving biodiversity and soil health, and linking farm payments to reduced use of pesticides.
– Housing
The party has vowed to provide “fairer, greener homes for all”, signalling that it wants to make the UK’s housing crisis one of its key priorities for the next Parliament.
Under their plans, housebuilders would have to include solar panels and heat pumps on all new homes where appropriate and £33 billion would be invested in insulating homes and other buildings over the next five years.
The party also promised to provide 150,000 new social homes every year and a “fair deal for renters” by giving powers to local authorities to introduce rent control measures.
– Health and social care
On health, the Greens said they want to ensure a “fully public, properly funded health and social care system”, promising to spend £50 billion per year by 2030.
The manifesto said elected MPs will push for a year-on-year reduction in waiting lists, guaranteed access to an NHS dentist, guaranteed rapid access to a GP, and an immediate boost to the pay of NHS staff.
On social care, the party has pledged to introduce free personal care, increase carer pay rates and introduce a career structure for the sector.
– Workers’ rights
In the manifesto, the party said it plans to “defend and extend workers’ rights” as it outlined measures such as repealing “anti-union” legislation and introducing a maximum 10:1 pay ratio.
The party will also push to increase the minimum wage to £15 an hour no matter the age – up from its current rate of £11.44 an hour for those aged 21 or over – and will move to introduce a four-day working week.
– Welfare
In the manifesto’s section on social support, the party pledges to “tackle the cost-of-living crisis for the poorest in our society”.
Measures include increasing Universal Credit and legacy benefits by £40 a week, abolishing the two-child benefit cap, introducing a universal basic income and giving disability benefits an immediate 5% uplift.
– Transport
The Greens’ plans to cut carbon emissions include championing “better, cheaper public transport” by increasing annual public subsidies for rail and bus travel to £10bn and investing an additional £19 billion to improve public transport by the end of the next Parliament.
Other measures include a focus on active travel, with the party pledging to invest £2.5bn a year in new cycleways and footpaths, and reducing traffic in residential areas to boost community use.
On aviation, elected MPs will push for a frequent-flyer levy, a ban on domestic flights for journeys that would take less than three hours by train and a halt to the expansion of new airport capacity.
The Greens said the current education system “operates like a production line rather than valuing their individual qualities”.
The manifesto said elected MPs will champion an increase in school funding of £8 billion, ending tuition fees for higher education students, stopping high-stakes testing at schools and abolishing Ofsted.
– Arts and culture
Green MPs will push for a £5 billion investment to support community sports, arts and culture, the manifesto said.
The party also backs efforts to keep local sports facilities, museums, theatres, libraries and art galleries open and thriving as well as ending VAT on cultural activities.
– Media reform
The manifesto said the current media landscape is “skewed by the dominance of billionaire and big-tech ownership” with the aim of maximising profits.
The party said it will push for a change in the law so that no single individual or company can own more than 20% of any media market and introduce all reforms proposed in the second part of the 2012 Leveson Report.
– Foreign policy
The Green Party said it will seek to rejoin the European Union “as soon as the political conditions are right” as it unveiled its foreign policy objectives.
In the manifesto, the party said UK foreign policy “should be based on shared commitments to democracy, peace, global solidarity and the protection of human rights” as it pledged continued support for Ukraine against the Russian invasion.
On Israel and Palestine, the party said it will push for an immediate bilateral ceasefire as well as a “durable political solution”.
On nuclear weapons, the party said it would see the UK begin the process of dismantling its nuclear weapons, cancel the Trident programme and remove all foreign nuclear weapons from UK soil.
And on supporting Global South countries to tackle the climate crisis, the Greens back an increase to international aid to 1% of gross national income (GNI) and an increase to climate finance to 1.5% by 2033.
– Rights and freedoms
The manifesto said the party will “defend the Human Rights Act, the UK’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights and continued direct access to convention rights in the domestic courts”.
On political reform, the party will replace the first past the post system for parliamentary elections with a fair and proportional voting system, replace the House of Lords with an elected second chamber and provide votes for 16-year-olds.
The party said it will also campaign to end violence against women and girls, scrap legislation that erodes the right to protest and free expression, and campaign for the right of self-identification for trans and non-binary people.
Other headline pledges including working to renew England’s crumbling court system with a £2.5bn investment and giving Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the choice to make their “own decisions about their relationship with the rest of the United Kingdom”.
– Immigration
The party also said it will replace a “dysfunctional Home Office” with a new Department of Migration, end immigration detention, and allow asylum seekers to work while their applications are decided.
