Green party calls for long-term approach to UK’s problems

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The Green party has called for more “hope” and “long-termism” in UK politics as its national conference came to an end in Manchester, pitching itself as the antidote to Labour’s “bleakness” and “despair”.

Newly elected MP for North Herefordshire Ellie Chowns criticised the short-termism of Westminster politics and said there needed to be “a ten, twenty, thirty year plan” on issues from the environment to housing and social care.

The political system, she said, “does not reward consensus building”, resulting in small conflicts over policy rather than fostering a culture in which politics makes real change.

She and her colleagues, including MPs for Bristol Central and Brighton Pavilion Carla Denyer and Siân Berry respectively, are pushing for reform of the voting system from the “first past the post” to proportional representation, which tends to favour smaller parties. They argue this would enable more long-termism in politics — without this, Chowns said, the UK would not see any real progress in improving public services.

Adrian Ramsay, party co-leader, in his speech at the beginning of a weekend in which members voted on issues from artificial intelligence to backing closer ties to Europe, said that “in so many areas, Labour is getting it wrong”.

Ramsay listed nationalising water services, taxing the wealthiest, defending public services and stopping the Rosebank oilfield as key policies on the Greens’ agenda, and promised to hold the new government to account.

Meanwhile, deputy leader Zack Polanski said that although there had been a “collective sigh of relief” after the end of 14 years of Conservative rule, Labour “promised change but actually what they’re offering is bleak”.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said that his government was “going to have to be unpopular” as he defended his position on scrapping winter fuel payments for 10mn pensioners.

This comes ahead of the government’s first major fiscal event, the Budget on October 30, when it is expected to raise taxes, blaming poor public finances inherited from the Conservatives.

The Green party, which went from one to four MPs in July’s general election and now has more than 800 councillors across the UK, has grown significantly in recent years and the mood at the Manchester conference was optimistic. Membership has grown from 53,000 at the end of 2023 to 59,000 and about 1,000 members — half of them new — attended the conference.

Polanski and Chowns have called for citizens’ assemblies on the climate and social care. Chowns said the idea of a citizen’s assembly was “to bring a fully representative group of people together” as MPs were not a representative sample, adding that she was still “learning the ropes” in Westminster after serving as a MEP in the European parliament.

The Greens are keen to change the old perception of their party as idealistic and unrealistic. Hannah Spencer, a Green councillor in Manchester, said: “The media may want to paint us as unrealistic but we have proved time and time again that we are a serious political force.”