Greens slam ‘unserious’ Labour in Manchester mayoral election

The Green Party tells the Canary that Labour’s “contempt for Greater Manchester residents” is on full display as the mayoral election looms soon. The party slams Labour for failing to yet deliver a costed manifesto, saying that Greater Manchester voters

need to know what they are voting for.

It’s now just over two weeks to go until Greater Manchester goes to the polls on 30 July. Postal votes are already landing on doorsteps for the single most significant ongoing election in English politics outside of Westminster. But Labour’s candidate, Bev Craig, has failed to publish a manifesto yet. (Even Reform UK, despite Clacton-caused chaos, published their manifesto today — more on which later.)

Green mayoral candidate Geraldine Coggins, however, won the Manchester Evening News hustings with the strongest record at their debate last week. Greens claim to be “surging” ahead in the polls for the mayoral race, too. And Coggins’ team has published a fully costed, ambitious manifesto.

Green Party lays out its manifesto for Greater Manchester

What are Greens promising?

The Green Party, in contrast to Labour, produced its fully costed manifesto on Thursday 8 July. It outlines their vision for a fairer, greener, more vibrant city-region including:

• Ambitious plan to build and buy 20,000 genuinely affordable homes over the next decade;
• Plan to revitalise high streets by bringing empty spaces back into use for the community;
• Commitment to make bus travel free for all people aged under 22 across Greater Manchester;
• Commitment to placing the “climate and nature crisis at the heart of everything we do”.

Labour has so far produced little more than a series of cartoon pledge cards. Labour’s candidate has previously been criticised for refusing to say how much her ideas would cost.

At the MEN hustings (43m16s in video), Craig went further, explaining how she got to her housing pledge. She admitted on record that she “picked a big number”. Why? Because “it sets our [Labour] ambition.” Hardly precise policy planning, then. Luckily, Manchester has other options at the ballot.

Geraldine Coggins from the Green Party comes out on top in mayoral hustings

Greens are gunning for Labour

Manchester was once a stronghold of Labour. But then, Labour was once the party of the working class and its interests, rather than big corporations. Now, neither is the case.

Greens are set to quite possibly make electoral history again in Manchester, following the election of their first Mancunian MP, Hannah Spencer, in February. If they do, Labour will only have themselves to blame.

Commenting to the press, Green Party mayoral candidate Coggins said:

Labour needs to get serious. The contempt that they are showing the electorate is breathtaking by asking for the very top job while offering no details of what they will do when in power.

All Labour have offered is a few cartoon pledge cards. You can’t hope to run a 3 billion budget based on a cartoon bus. This isn’t serious politics.

Greens, in contrast, are offering Greater Manchester a vision of hope. We’ve outlined our plan in a detailed, fully costed manifesto.

The Green Party’s Salford-born leader, Zack Polanski, added comment:

Greens are serious about running Greater Manchester, which is why we’ve taken the time to make the plans – and have been rightly scrutinised on them too. It shows contempt for the people of Greater Manchester to show such a lack of interest in what plans there are should another party win.

The manifesto is not just a series of pledges. It’s a vision of hope – a Greater Manchester where we take on inequality and protect our environment.

I imagine most people would struggle to tell you what the vision from the other parties was — never mind the lack of policy. Greater Manchester deserves better than the failed status quo.

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