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Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer described her party’s electoral performance as “beyond my wildest dreams” as she set out plans to push Labour “to be braver on the areas where they’ve been backsliding in the run-up to the election”.
The Greens won four seats last Thursday, holding Brighton Pavilion and securing Bristol Central, Waveney Valley and North Herefordshire. Including the separate Scottish and Northern Ireland parties, the Greens more than doubled their UK vote share from 2.6% in 2019 to 6.8% this July. The England & Wales party finished second in 40 constituencies and secured 7.2% of the vote.
Denyer, and fellow MP, Ellie Chowns, spoke to Byline Times earlier this week after arriving at Parliament along with fellow new Green MPs, co-leader Adrian Ramsay, and Sian Berry, and laying out what the party called a clear and achievable ten-step plan that’s a “litmus test for the direction this government plans to travel.”
Key areas of focus for the party, Denyer and Chowns said, was stopping new oil and gas projects, like the Rosebank fields, mandating solar panels on new-builds, lifting the two-child benefit cap and addressing river pollution and environmental protection.
The pair also told Byline Times that there’s a possibility of a new left-wing caucus emerging in Parliament, via the Green New Deal Rising group which helped get them elected. Eleven of the left-wing group’s 15 candidates they backed were elected.
While admitting it was “definitely time” for the Conservatives to go, Denyer’s optimism that things would change under Labour was somewhat tempered by how “quickly they’re abandoning policies before even getting into power”.
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“I think there’s been a legitimate fear from many voters that if they’re like that in opposition, what would they be like in government?”
The party co-leader opined that feeling was “part of what motivated people” to vote Green, “along with the fact that we were the only party being honest about the level of investment needed to fix the problems in our public services, how we would raise the funds to do that, and offering policies that would provide real change and hope, not just incremental change.”
Denyer also claimed that the “kind of change” Labour is offering is “pretty timid” so the party will “hold them to account, to support them in areas [where] we agree, but to push them to go further”.
As examples of that, she cited new Energy Secretary Ed Miliband saying he will reverse the de facto ban on onshore wind energy, but not confirming he will stop the Rosebank oil and gas fields.
“The Labour Party said they would keep that licence in place even though the climate science is clear that we cannot be opening any new oil and gas wells at this stage of the climate emergency,” Denyer told Byline Times.
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She went on to say the party will push for “simple, quick things” the government can make right now, like mandating solar panels on the roofs of all new-build housing, and policies like lifting the two-child benefit cap “which disappointingly Labour have said they support keeping”.
Denyer said the party is “not going to be shy about speaking out where we think the government could and should be going further”.
Asked whether she had had any conversations with independent MPs about joining the party, Denyer said only that the Greens have a “thorough” vetting process to ensure potential members are a “good fit”. “Whether people join the party or work collaboratively across party lines, we’re always happy to work with those who agree with us,” she added.