The Green Party just shamed Keir Starmer in one fell swoop

The Green Party launched its general election manifesto on 12 June. It includes a raft of policies to tackle the issues facing public services, housing, and the climate.

Green candidate Sian Berry is hoping to succeed Caroline Lucas in Brighton Pavilion. She said “the time for half measures and empty promises is over”. Keir Starmer, meanwhile, has offered many empty promises – U-turning on every pledge he made to become Labour leader.

Green Party manifesto commitments

Green Party manifesto policies on housing include the provision of 150,000 social homes per year. This is through new builds and the purchase or refurbishment of existing housing stock.

The manifesto also floats rent controls. Such an approach is highly necessary as people are spending close to 40% of average incomes on rent. That’s essentially free money for landlords simply because they already had the money to buy more accommodation and treat what they don’t live in like assets.

As part of a ‘Green Economic Transformation’, the party pledges a £40bn investment per year in transitioning to a green economy. The Greens would also bring the big five energy companies into public ownership and issue a carbon tax to disincentivise fossil fuel use.

On education, Green Party MPs would push for an increase in school funding of £8bn. That includes £2bn going to a pay rise for teachers. The party would end tuition fees. This would prevent young people from being saddled with debt for trying to learn and enrich their lives.

When it comes to Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinian people, the Greens state they would support the International Court of Justice (ICJ) investigation into Israel’s “plausible” genocide. This is in contrast to Labour, where Keir Starmer mostly ignores the ICJ and shadow health secretary Wes Streeting called it a “distraction”.

The Greens said they would restore funding to the UNRWA, which is a life-line for Palestinian people, and support “an urgent international effort to end the illegal occupation of Palestinian land”. The party would also end arms sales to Israel.

General election: oppose the establishment managers

We need to oppose the establishment managers in both Labour and Tory this election. Supporting Green candidates is one way to do that.

Featured image via The Times and the Sunday Times – YouTube