Greens’ only MP: Yes, I f ly long-haul but it’s OK

THE former leader of the Green Party yesterday admitted that she takes long-haul flights.

Caroline Lucas said she flew to the United States to see family but insisted tackling climate change was not always about individual behaviour.

Asked by the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show when she last used a plane, Miss Lucas responded: ‘My son lives in the United States and so I do fly. Not often but occasionally I do.

‘ Sometimes the focus on individual behaviour, important though that is, lets the big fossil fuel companies off the hook, it lets those in power off the hook.

‘Because what we need here is systems change. It is incredibly easy to pit one person’s behaviour against another person’s behaviour and say you’re not good enough.

‘We’re all trying to do our best in a deeply imperfect system. And so what we need to be doing, I think, is focusing on changing that system. Why, for example, is it so much more expensive to take a train from the UK to other parts of Europe than it is to fly? There’s no reason for that.’

Miss Lucas, pictured, was the Greens’ only MP following the 2017 election. She is standing again on December 12 in the Brighton Pavilion seat she has held since 2010.

The party launched its election campaign at an event in Bristol last week with a ‘Green New Deal’ to make the UK carbon neutral by 2030. Labour has made a similar pledge, while the Conservatives have committed to a 2050 target.

The Greens want to spend £100billion a year on cleaner transport and ‘retrofitting’ homes with better insulation.

While £91billion of the cash would be borrowed, the remaining £9billion would come from putting up corporation tax.