Green party offering voters ‘hope’

THE GREEN Party has said it is offering voters a “message of hope” after it unveiled a series of key election pledges guaranteeing better working conditions and more funding for the NHS.

Announcing the policies alongside co-leader Jonathan Bartley, the former MP Caroline Lucas said her party’s aim is to create “a confident and caring country we can all be proud of ”.

Pledges include the introduction of a basic income, a £10-anhour “genuine living wage” and a four-day working week. The party is also committed to a referendum on the final Brexit deal, and an “immediate guarantee” on the rights of EU citizens in the UK.

Speaking at a campaign event in London, Ms Lucas said the country needs hope “like never before”. “I can’t remember a time in my own lifetime where the future has felt more uncertain – with Brexit, with accelerating climate change, with an NHS in crisis,” she said.

“We face challenges that we can’t possibly pretend to fix in the next 100 days, or the next 1,000. Threats to our economic future, threats to our security, threats to our planet.

“But ours is a message of hope because we believe if we stand together for what matters, we can change the course of history.”

Ms Lucas also said she was “glad” to see policies from her party’s 2015 campaign, including scrapping tuition fees and nationalising the railways, adopted by Labour. But she added that there were some “very important things” the party “is not doing”.