The Green party has launched an election manifesto for what it calls a “confident and caring Britain”, centred on proposals including a universal basic income, opposition to a hard Brexit and an appeal to young voters.
Introducing the 23-page document, the party’s co-leader, Caroline Lucas, said young people had been betrayed by politicians.
She conceded there were similarities between the Greens’ ideas and those announced last week by the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn but insisted there was space for the party, which has struggled in recent polls to reach the near-4% support they achieved in the 2015 election.
The manifesto, the Green Guarantee, was aimed at creating “a confident and caring Britain that reaches for a bigger future that we can be proud of”, Lucas told supporters in central London.
“The Green Guarantee is about hope, and we need hope now like never before,” she said. “I can’t remember a time in my life where the future has felt more uncertain, with Brexit, with accelerated climate change, with an NHS in crisis.” Among plans in the manifesto is to pilot a universal basic income – a subsistence minimum income received by all – and to phase in a four-day week, with a maximum of 35 hours in work.
As well as strong environmental protections and moves to create greener transport, the party proposes ending private companies working in the NHS, taking railways into public ownership, scrapping university tuition fees and writing off existing student debt.
The extra public spending would be paid for by measures including a tax on the top 1% of earners, levies on financial transactions, and changes to corporation and inheritance tax.
Another key policy would be to offer the chance of a referendum on any final Brexit deal, which would give voters the option of Britain not leaving the EU.
Lucas said she was alarmed at Theresa May’s plans for Brexit. “Let us make no mistake – she has no mandate for the kind of Brexit she is pursuing, out of the single market, out of the customs union, leaving environmental protections behind, ending free movement,” she said. “That was not on the ballot paper. Yes, there was a vote to leave, but it’s not clear what that leave looks like in practice. We are the one party that is proud to stand up for the wonderful gift that is free movement – it is an extraordinarily precious gift to be able to work and to travel and to live and to love in 27 other member states.”
The Greens were “making a pitch” for younger voters, in part with the Brexit proposals, Lucas said. “In particular, I think it is young people who are being betrayed by this Brexit vote,” she said. “We know the majority of young people want to stay in the EU.”
Young people were also being “burdened by debt” and left unable to buy their own homes, she said, saying the party sought longer tenancies and rent caps set by a new living rent commission.
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