Green Party launches general election campaign with pledge to protect NHS from privatisation and clean up rivers
“We are very clear that these are our priorities – our NHS, housing, climate and nature, public services, and the quality of our water.”
The general election is now in full swing, with parties out on the streets and in the media to make their case to voters. Today, the Green Party of England and Wales formally launched their general election campaign in Bristol, where the party’s co-leader Carla Denyer is hoping to become its second ever MP.
Outgoing Green MP Caroline Lucas opened the launch by saying the Greens were carrying out their “most ambitious general election campaign ever”. She went on to say that by getting more Greens elected to parliament, a Labour government would be “pushed to be bolder and braver on everything from housing, to the NHS, to the accelerating climate crisis”.
Denyer and her fellow co-leader Adrian Ramsay spoke at the campaign launch to set out the party’s core campaign messages. Among them were a commitment to build affordable homes, take action on the cost of living crisis, reverse NHS privatisation and clean up rivers and seas.
As well as attacking the Tories’ record in office, the Greens also used their launch to heavily criticise the Labour Party’s policy offer in the election.
Denyer said: “People are disappointed by the way Starmer has backtracked on his promises on green investment, his weak offer on housing, and now we have Wes Streeting telling us that more privatisation of the NHS is a good thing. When the challenges we face are so huge, people tell us they’re disappointed by the lack of ambition from the Labour Party.”
She added: “Across the country, people now have the chance to vote for real hope and real change. Our politics is broken, our public services are on their knees and people are worse off now than when the Conservatives came to power 14 years ago.
“The case for change is obvious, but it has to be real change that offers real hope. Half measures and broken pledges will not do. The Conservatives are clearly on their way out of government, but Labour is failing to offer the real change needed.
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Article continues at https://leftfootforward.org/2024/05/green-party-launches-general-election-campaign-with-pledge-to-protect-nhs-from-privatisation-and-clean-up-rivers/
General election debates: Greens in uproar over exclusion from Scottish leaders’ debate
STV is hosting a four-way debate on Monday
Leaders’ debates are now a key feature of General Election campaigns in the UK. So far, only one UK-wide debate has been announced. Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer will go head to head on ITV at 9pm on Tuesday, 4 June.
The day before, there will also be a debate between Scottish Party leaders on STV at 9pm. SNP leader John Swinney, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross and Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton will be taking part.
Notable in their absence from the Scottish debate are the Greens. While the Scottish Greens don’t currently have any seats in the House of Commons, they do have 7 MSPs – more than the Liberal Democrats – and they were until recently in government in Scotland.
The decision not to invite the Greens has led to outrage from key party activists and representatives.
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Diane Abbott accuses Labour of ‘leftwing cull’ after two fellow MPs barred from standing
Diane Abbott has accused Labour of carrying out a “cull of leftwingers” after she and others were blocked or dissuaded from standing for the party.
The veteran Labour MP vowed on Wednesday to stay on for “as long as it is possible” after a deal for her to retire from parliament broke down.
The row, which has angered and frustrated some Labour MPs and staff, escalated on Thursday after two leftwing candidates were blocked from standing for the party in the general election.
Faiza Shaheen, who had been Labour’s candidate in Chingford and Woodford Green, told BBC Two’s Newsnight she received an email telling her she had been deselected after the decision was first made public in the Times.
Responding to the news on X, Abbott said: “Appalling. Whose clever idea has it been to have a cull of left wingers?”
Lloyd Russell-Moyle, the MP for Brighton Kemptown, announced he had been suspended from the party on Wednesday afternoon and would not be allowed to stand for Labour at the election.
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Jeremy Corbyn formally launches campaign to be independent MP for Islington North
Corbyn said he wanted to be an “independent voice for equality, for democracy and for peace”
The former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn formally launched his campaign to be elected as an independent MP for Islington North last night (29 May). Corbyn is standing as an independent after being blocked from being a Labour candidate in the general election.
At a packed meeting, Corbyn started the launch by saying that he wanted to be an “independent voice for equality, for democracy and for peace” and slammed what he described as a “political system that is no longer, sadly, offering the hope to so many people that it should.”
Corbyn continued by saying: “Politics should be about hope. Politics should be about making sure that those that are silenced are heard, those that are pushed aside are brought back in, those whose needs are so often unmet. It short, it is about the hope that we can bring to people. That’s what politics ought to do.”
Among the specific policy areas Corbyn pledged to campaign on were scrapping the two child benefit cap, ending sanctions for benefits claimants, taking public services such as water and Royal Mail into public ownership and introducing rent controls in the private sector.
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Corbyn launches election campaign as an independent
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Mr Corbyn was suspended as a Labour MP in 2020 for his response to a report into anti-Semitism in the party.
Launching his campaign at a community centre in Crouch Hill, he accused Labour of “denying democracy” by not allowing him to stand for the party.
“Labour members were denied a vote. If you shut down that democratic voice then you’ve got problems. That’s why I’ve decided I will run,” he said.
He also said he had sent a message of support to Diane Abbott amidst the uncertainty over whether she will be allowed to stand for Labour and attempt to defend her Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat.
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