Global warming is 'elephant in room' in election with Labour and Tories failing, warns Green peer
Fighting global warming is the “elephant in the room” in the general election with Labour and the Tories failing to do enough, warned Green peer Baroness Jenny Jones.
The former London Assembly member accused Sir Keir Starmer’s party of not “grasping the size of the problem” and Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives of “getting worse on climate change”.
The Green Party are standing on a platform of investing tens of billions more in public services, paid for by higher taxes, particularly on the wealthy.
Their manifesto has proposals on the NHS, education, transport and other issues.
But Baroness Jones stressed that during the election campaign other parties were not taking the threat of a warming planet sufficiently seriously.
She said: “The elephant in the room is climate change and people are not talking about it enough.
“The future should be green not grey.
“Labour just don’t grasp the size of the problem on climate change.
“The Tories are good on nature because they own so much of it but they are getting worse on climate change.”
Sir Keir has scaled back Labour’s £28 billion green economy plan.
Former London mayoral candidate Sian Berry is standing in Brighton Pavilion for the Greens, and the party also has its sights on winning Bristol Central.
The Greens have pledged to abolish Ofsted and bring in continuous assessments to replace SATs testing, as part of an £8 billion education package.
The party is also proposing to scrap tuition fees, provide free school meals for all children, and axe the two-child benefit cap.
It denies it is relying on “a magic money tree lurking in the playground” to fund its plans.
