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The Green Party launched its campaign to increase its number of MPs from one to four at the next general election at this year’s Conference.
Greens Co-Leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay described the Government as “climate vandals” for granting permission for the West Cumbria coal mine, failing to get a single bid for offshore wind projects, weakening net zero commitments, and opening up the Rosebank oilfield.
They also accused the Labour Party of being complicit by not providing effective opposition and of “radio silence” when asked if they would reverse any of the decisions.
“We know we can do better than this,” said Denyer. “And with more Green MPs in Parliament we will.”
Having quadrupled the number of Green councillors since 2019, the Green Party plans to target resources on winning the seats at Brighton Pavilion, Bristol Central, Waveney Valley and North Herefordshire.
Siân Berry, former Co-Leader and current Green councillor on Camden Council, hopes to replace Caroline Lucas, who will be standing down after 13 years as the Green MP for the Brighton Pavilion constituency. She spoke to Byline Times about the party and her prospects at the next election as the climate emergency rapidly escalates.
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The Green Party is aiming for four seats in the next general election. Why do you think it’s important that the Green Party is represented in Parliament?
Well, it’s incredibly important that there is a green voice in the next Houses of Parliament. There needs to be someone holding the next government to account. Whether that’s another Tory government, and we’ve got to get rid of them as soon as possible, or a Labour-led government.
We know that Keir Starmer’s rowing back on a lot of the principles that we thought were embedded in the Labour Party. Things like supporting workers. Things like rent controls. We fought really hard as a campaigning movement to get that into the Labour agenda. They’ve rowed back on that. They’re not getting rid of the right to buy, they confirmed that again.
We have a real challenge with the next Labour government that is going to be that mushy middle-ground that we’ve seen far too much of for decades now.
We want to have a group of four Green MPs holding that next government to account, bringing that green voice in, listening to communities that are often ignored, particularly by Labour councils, and making sure that we’ve got a government that will actually solve the ecological crisis, the climate crisis and the crisis in housing and the cost of living.
And all the people who are feeling left out of politics at the moment – we will be their voice in the next Parliament.