Domestic flights ban and clampdown on fats cat bosses – key Green Party pledges

The Green Party has pledged to outlaw short domestic flights, limit how much fat cat bosses can earn and dismantle nuclear weapons.

In its election manifesto, unveiled today, it also called for free bus travel for under-18s, new taxes for regular flyers and “major” reforms of the tax system. Co-leader Adrian Ramsay said Green MPs would push Labour to “stop backtracking on their promises”.

Other measures in the document include an end to the controversial two-child benefit cap, an increase in Universal Credit by £40 a week and the removal of oil and gas subsidies.

Mr Ramsay said of Labour: “We will be there to drive them to be braver, to be more ambitious, not to take timid baby steps towards change but to actually do what’s necessary to fix our country and get us back on track.”

Fellow co-leader Carla Denyer said her party would “overhaul our tax system to make it fairer”. She added: “At the heart of this would be a tax on the very richest, the top 1% of people requiring them to pay a bit more into the pot. From the Tories and Labour, we’ve been hearing a race to the bottom on tax.

“They think two pence off here and a penny off there will impress voters and they think that people won’t cotton on that this means even more devastating cuts to public services like the NHS that we rely on every day.”

Transport

The manifesto pledges that a Green-led Government would

• Increase annual public subsidies for rail and bus travel to £10bn by the end of the next Parliament
• Introduce free bus travel for under-18s
• introduce a frequent-flyer levy
• Ban domestic flights for journeys that would take less than three hours by train
• A halt to the expansion of new airport capacity
• Bring railways back into public ownership

Tax

The Greens want “major” reforms to the UK’s tax system. They would:

• Introduce a wealth tax of 1% each year on assets above £10billion and 2% of assets above £1billion
• Increase Capital Gains Tax in line with income tax
• Scrap VAT on cultural activities such as visiting museums and going to gigs

Welfare

The Greens have vowed to:

• Scrap the two-child benefit limit – introduced by ex-Tory Chancellor George Osborne
• Hike Universal Credit and legacy benefits by £40-per week in order to tackle the cost of living crisis
• In the long-term the party also wants a Universal Basic Income – a policy which tends to involve giving all citizens a regular payment

Defence and Foreign Affairs

Abolishing nuclear weapons is key to the Greens’ promise. They want to:

• Push for UK to sign UN Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
• Once this is done, dismantle nuclear weapons

Green energy

As you’d expect, this is central to the Greens’ pledges. Among the key promises in the manifesto are:

• Push for wind to provide around 70% of UK’s electricity by 2030
• Cancel recent fossil fuel licences and stop all new fossil fuel extraction projects in the UK
• Remove all oil and gas subsidies
• Introduce a carbon tax on all fossil fuel imports and domestic extraction

Workers’ rights

The Greens have proposed an overhaul of workers’ rights. Key measures include:

• Workers to have legal right to request a four day week
• Maximum of 10:1 pay ratio for all private and public sector organisations – limiting how much fat cat bosses can earn
• Legal obligation for all employers to recognise trade unions

Housing

Headline pledges in the manifesto include:

• Provide 150,000 new social homes every year
• Bring in rent controls so councils can control rents
• End to no-fault evictions

Health and social care

The Greens have vowed to:

• Invest an extra £3billion a year in NHS dentistry by 2030
• Legalise assisted dying for people with terminal disease
• End new cases of HIV by 2030
• Push for £20billion investment to introduce free personal care

Democracy

The manifesto also includes plans to shake-up the UK’s voting system. The party vowed to:

• Scrap the existing ‘first-past-the-post’ election system and bring in proportional representation
• Get rid of the House of Lords and replace it with an elected second chamber
• Allow 16-year-olds to vote

Animal rights

The manifesto includes a number of measures on animal rights, including:

• End to factory farming
• Ban on farm animals being kept in cages
• Ends to badger culling

Crime and justice

The Greens want to do away with anti-protest reforms. They vowed to:

• Plough £2.5billion into the crumbling court system
• Scrap the Scrap the Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Act,the Public Order Act and other legislation that “erodes the right to protest and free expression”