Greens standing in every seat in Wales

The Green Party will be fielding general election candidates in every seat in Wales for the first time next month.

All 32 candidates candidates selected by the party had nomination paperwork accepted by the deadline last Thursday.

Anthony Slaughter, Wales Green Party leader said: “Standing everywhere in Wales shows how much the party has grown both in people and resources.

“Every candidate is standing for our exciting vision that will rescue the NHS, provide affordable homes for all and tackle the climate and nature emergencies.

“Voting Green on 4 July is a vote to give Wales the powers and money we need to turn around public services – something Keir Starmer’s Labour has rejected.

“With the Tories heading for a historic defeat, voting Green will push the new Labour government to be bolder.”

Manifesto

At the party’s manifesto launch earlier today (12 June) it pledged to stop “all new fossil fuel projects” in the UK.

Co-leaders of the party Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer also pledged to “mend broken Britain” by overhauling the tax system.

The party also proposed a Green Economic Transition plan to upgrade homes across the UK to increase their energy efficiency, which they say will make them warmer and cheaper to run.

The Greens have previously promised to spend £50 billion per year on health and social care by 2030, and to protect the climate for future generations and “bring nature back to life”.

At their manifesto launch on Wednesday, Mr Ramsey said the climate crisis has been “pretty much absent from this election campaign so far”.

Climate

He said: “The other parties are running away from their promises on climate. Only the Greens understand that the solutions to the climate crisis are also the solutions to the cost-of-living crisis.

“The climate crisis is the most serious we face as a global community. Our commitment to you is that protecting our climate and nature lies at the heart of all of our policies.”

He added: “We would stop all new fossil fuel projects in the UK and cancel those that have been recently licensed like Rosebank.

“We would be more ambitious than any other party when it comes to renewable energy, investing to ensure that our energy can come from wind and solar power. A secure energy supply and action on the climate crisis go hand in hand.

“Our investments in public transport, support the switch to electric vehicles and homes heated without fossil fuels means we would put this country on path to being net zero years ahead of other parties.

“The science is clear, the desire from voters is clear. Now we need representatives in parliament who are ambitious enough to make it a reality.”

The Green manifesto pledges a wealth tax of 1% annually on assets above £10 million and of 2% on assets above £1 billion.

Along with other tax measures – such as removing the upper earning limit that restricts the amount of national insurance paid by high earners – the party estimates it could raise an additional revenue of between £50-70 billion.

Tax system

Ms 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.”

Caroline Lucas was previously the Green Party’s only MP, she represented the Brighton Pavilion constituency since 2010.

According to the latest Wales specific polling, published by Redfield and Wilton Strategies last week, the Greens are in 6th place on 4% one place and one percentage point below the Liberal Democrats.

An average of the latest UK-wide polls gives them 6% of the vote, in fifth place behind the Lib Dems.

You can view the full list of Green Part candidates in Wales here.