News / Politics
Green Party launches General Election 2019 campaign in Bristol
Green Party leaders dubbed 2019 “the climate election” as they launched their campaign with a promise to invest £100 billion a year on tackling the environmental emergency.
“The climate does not care about pledges or promises, what we need is action,” said deputy leader Amelia Womack at We The Curious on Wednesday.
………………………………
is needed now More than ever
Bristol24/7 relies on your support to fund our independent journalism and social impact projects. Become a member and enjoy exclusive perks from just £5 per month.
………………………………
Echoing actions from the 2017 General Election, the party chose to launch its national campaign at a venue in the heart of Bristol West, which once again represents a key Green target seat despite the landslide victory of Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire just over two years ago.
Carla Denyer, the Green hopeful candidate for Bristol West, says the political atmosphere has dramatically shifted in that time and she believes it is now more in line with 2015 when the Greens came a close second to Labour.
“It’s not going to be easy, but I think it’s going to be possible,” the Clifton Down councillor told Bristol24/7.
“People who voted for Labour, thinking they were a remain party, have been disappointed. My key priorities are to hold a People’s Vote on Europe, to tackle climate chaos and to end austerity.
“I want to talk about the harmful government cuts again because that’s a large part of why I joined the Green Party. The Tories are trying to tell us austerity is over and that’s clearly a sham.”
https://www.facebook.com/thegreenparty/videos/402414997329781/
Denyer was the councillor who proposed the motion for Bristol City Council to declare a climate emergency – a move that gained unanimous support and sparked a chain reaction across the UK and beyond.
“Imagine what I could achieve if I was doing that at the next level up,” she said.
The Green Party intends to finance its ambitious £100 billion annual investment on climate action for the next decade by borrowing £91.2 billion a year, to pay for capital expenditure; with a further £9 billion for operational spending to be met by tax changes, including increasing corporation tax to 24 per cent.
The party also set out ambitions to make Britain fossil free by 2030 and promises to achieve carbon neutrality in the same year by building 100,000 energy-efficient homes each year, “revolutionising transport infrastructure”, rolling out renewable energy and creating “hundreds of thousands” of low carbon jobs.
The Green Party are pinning many of their hopes on Carla Denyer
The Greens are fielding candidates in each of Bristol’s four constituencies: Conan Connolly will stand in Bristol East, Heather Mack in Bristol North West and Tony Dyer in Bristol South, alongside Denyer in Bristol West.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, the Conservatives launched their General Election campaign, with Boris Johnson promising to “get Brexit over the line” and “unleash the country’s potential”.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has already appeared in Bristol during this campaign, while Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson promised at her party’s campaign launch that she could do “a better job” than either Boris Johnson or Corbyn.
Read more: Who is standing in this December’s General Election in Bristol’s four constituencies?
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
