The Greens don’t stand up for working people

As the Green Party gathers for its annual conference today we should look back at its record in charge of the party’s flagship council, Brighton and Hove, since 2011 and the implications of the Greens’ policy agenda to see whether or not they stand up for working people.

On coming to power in Brighton and Hove, following the election of Caroline Lucas as the first Green Party MP to the House of Commons in 2010, it was undoubtedly true that many thought we were witnessing the emergence of a new political force. Sadly, the Green Party has failed to pursue a new politics and we have seen chaos reign locally, policy proposals to increases taxes on hardworking families and a national agenda which would damage our economy.

Earlier this year the Green Party leadership in Brighton and Hove was defeated in its efforts to impose council tax increase of five per cent by a coalition of opposition parties, including Labour.

After losing a vote of no confidence in the leadership, the Council was threatened with Whitehall humiliatingly stepping in if a budget could not be agreed. This is not the sort of responsible leadership that households in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis deserve.

Neither was the series of bin collection strikes caused by the Council’s attempts to reform pay in 2013, which left a bad smell across the city which lingers in many memories. Nor was the Council’s attempt to impose ‘meat free Monday’ on its workers, until they rebelled. The Council allowing travellers to take over local parks was also met with local revolt. Can Britain really afford to vote for a party that one week votes to cut down a tree and the next sends its Councillors to hug that very same tree to stop it being removed?

A vote for the Green Party is not a vote for leadership. As their policy platform shows, it’s a vote for higher taxes for families, new restrictions for motorists, increased benefits for people who choose not to work, and the legalisation of hard drugs like heroin and crack cocaine.

While Labour will use its Conference season to demonstrate our party’s plan for Britain, with a balanced programme to support jobs and growth, the Green Party are in favour of massive increases in both taxes (including income tax) and public spending – and they don’t even think that the UK should be trying to support economic growth.

It is vital that we raise living standards for all – and yet the Green Party’s policies would hit people in the pocket rather than boost their pay packets. They would make it harder to travel, with a plan for slower speed limits on roads, less road-building and new road taxes. They even want to introduce new taxes on air travel to make it more expensive to go on holiday abroad.

The Green Party simply doesn’t stand up for working people. Their “Citizen’s Income”, an unconditional payment made to everyone, whether they want to seek work or not, paid for by increasing the income tax paid by those who do work, does nothing to incentivise work or to counter worklessness.

The Choice at the next election is clearer and clearer. Labour has a plan to increase living standards for all while the other parties continue to stand up for the wrong people. We will see this in action when the Greens parade their party at their conference: a party with a record of failure and disorder locally, with a national platform which would make Britain’s economy less competitive, hitting jobs and growth.

Anyone tempted to vote Green as an alternative path to supporting the interests of people who work hard and play by the rules should be aware of the truth behind the Green Party’s offer. Only Labour has a plan to make Britain’s future better off.

The Green Party has failed the people of Brighton and Hove. Don’t let them fail the people of Britain by voting Green next year and allowing Tory MPs to remain in post.