NATALIE BENNETT launched the Green Party’s “biggest, boldest campaign ever” yesterday that will see more than 500 candidates stand across Britain in May’s general election.
The party’s membership has swelled to 54,000 amid a “Green surge,” driven by young supporters on social media, which has seen them leapfrog the Lib Dems in the latest polls.
Ms Bennett seized on that momentum as she announced the party will stand in 90 per cent of constituencies across England and Wales.
At the Green campaign launch event in London, she said new support for her party was part of a “profound change” gripping British politics.
“What we’re seeing is the politics of hope is rising and is triumphing over the politics of fear,” she said.
“The Green Party  wants a political system that delivers for the common good not just for the few and it’s very clear that’s what the British public wants too.”
The surge was stalled though when Ms Bennett stumbled her way through a “car-crash” interview about the party’s six campaign themes.
Building 500,000 new social homes to ensure that “everyone has a secure, affordable place to live” is among the key pledges.
But when quizzed about how the policy would be funded on LBC radio, there were long silences as the Green leader struggled to explain through a “huge cold.”
“Right, well, that’s, erm … you’ve got a total cost … erm … that we’re … that will be spelt out in our manifesto,” she said.
Ms Bennett later apologised to supporters for her “excruciating mind blank” and explained that £4.5 billion would be raised by cutting mortgage rate relief for landlords.
The Green Party insisted that costings for all its policies will be detailed at a manifesto launch in March, after being finalised at its spring conference in Liverpool.
But Labour said the episode was more proof that “when the Greens are put under any serious scrutiny their policies fall apart.
“They would cut pay by forcing people to work fewer hours a week and their welfare policy would give millionaires the same weekly payment as the lowest paid,” said shadow Cabinet Office minister Jonathan Ashworth.
“A vote for the Green Party would increase the chances of the Tories remaining in Downing Street.”
lukejames@peoples-press.com
A peaceful revolution
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