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Green co-leader Adrian Ramsay has opened the party’s conference with an attack on the “lacklustre offers and U-turns” of Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.
Kicking off the left-wing party’s campaign against Labour for next year’s local elections, Mr Ramsay painted the Greens as “an inspiring alternative to business as usual”.
And, while he promised to work with Labour on issues where the parties agree, he condemned Sir Keir’s decision to withdraw the winter fuel payment from millions of pensioners, his refusal to lift the two-child benefit cap and the approval of an expansion of London City Airport .
Mr Ramsay also attacked the “half-hearted” suspension of arms sales to Israel after foreign secretary David Lammy blocked 30 of the UK’s 350 export licences to the country.
Two months after the party’s general election breakthrough, which saw the Greens jump from having one Westminster MP to four, Mr Ramsay vowed the group would “use our voices in parliament to raise up the voices of two million Green voters who want so much better”.
Addressing a packed auditorium of hundreds of Green Party members in Manchester, Mr Ramsay focused almost entirely on Labour’s plans for government, drawing rapturous applause with promises to outflank the party on the left.
“This isn’t real change… it’s another example of a focus on growth and profit that serves few and keeps the wheels of inequality turning,” Mr Ramsay said, addressing Labour’s focus on unlocking development.
He was addressing conference alone after co-leader Carla Denyer contracted Covid-19. The newly elected Bristol Central MP appeared via video to call on supporters to “raise a glass and have a dance on Saturday night” to celebrate the election results.
Key measures Mr Ramsay promised to fight for in parliament included an additional tax on the wealthiest in the UK and the renationalisation of the water industry.
He also called for the cancellation of the Rosebank oil and gas field, stressing that “the climate science is super clear - there must be no new oil and gas”.
In a rallying cry to those gathered in Manchester, Mr Ramsay highlighted the 800 councillors the party has after May’s local elections, becoming the biggest party on councils in Bristol, Hastings and Stroud.
“They demonstrate that Greens can, and are, winning everywhere. In all kinds of communities,” he said.
It came after an exclusive interview with The Independent, in which Mr Ramsay dismissed the gains of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, painting Greens as the real breakthrough party of July’s general election.
“The big difference with Reform electorally is that we have a consistent base of council support across the country, where we’ve been winning large numbers of votes in local elections year in, year out, across all corners of the country,” he told this newspaper.
Addressing the party conference in Manchester, he said: “In May next year, we intend to achieve more of the same. Gain more inspiring, hard working councillors, who will change their communities for the better.
“And then, in 2026, in Wales we have a fantastic opportunity to secure Green representation in the Senedd. Offering people the real hope and real change they are looking for.”
Playing out on the fringes of the party conference are battles over transgender rights and the party’s support for HS2. A contentious motion, EO1, has attracted demonstrators in support and opposition outside the entry to the conference.
More demonstrators were gathered outside the conference protesting the party’s progressive stance on transgender rights. Supporters of a so-called women’s declaration, some of whom have been suspended from the party, are calling for the Greens to strengthen rights based on sex - as opposed to gender identity.
They are also calling for the protection of female-only spaces and for gender critical women to be able to speak out without harassment. The protests attracted condemnation from younger, more progressive party members, indicating potential splits in the Greens’ growing voter base which now comprises traditional Green Party backers, and younger left-wingers who have fled the Labour Party in protest at Sir Keir’s leadership.
Elsewhere, the party for the first time hosted its first fringe event in collaboration with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), in a sign of the membership’s increasing support for the Palestinian people. Ahead of mass pro-Palestine marches across the UK on Saturday, PSC chairman Ben Jamal addressed a room packed with more than 100 Green members, praising the party for holding the session.
