Greens Call for a Party Alliance Against the Tories

NEWS 

By: Jack Johnston. Socialist. Open to all views and opinions. Based in the North East of England.

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Jack Johnston/ Guy Bell / Rex / Shutterstock  

The Green Party has written to many other centre-left parties - including: Labour, the Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru – offering to form a progressive alliance to oppose the Tories in the next General Election.

The letter, sent to all of the above party leaders, was signed by Green leader, Natalie Bennett, and their only standing MP, Caroline Lucas. It is also signed by the leaders of the Green’s Welsh and Northern Irish party leaders.

In the letter, they stress the circumstances created by Britain’s vote to leave the EU and state that a post-Brexit pact is needed for all parts of the UK other than Scotland, where the SNP’s strong support gives a strong pro-EU voice:

“In a spirit of openness and transparency, we are writing to you as leaders of parties which oppose Brexit, to invite you to a cross-party meeting to explore how we best rise to the challenge posed by last week’s vote to leave the EU.

“We have a UK Government in chaos, an economy facing a crisis and people up and down the country facing serious hardship. There is an urgent need to make a stand against any austerity and the slashing of environmental legislation, human and workers’ rights that may come with Brexit.

“With the growing likelihood of an early General Election, the importance of progressive parties working together to prevent the formation of a Tory-UKIP-DUP government that would seek to enact an ultra-right Brexit scenario is ever more pressing.”

Bennett argued that such a scheme was “the best possible chance of a progressive outcome from the mess we are currently in”, but should be seen as only a stepping stone to proportional representation.

The replies from these leaders are yet to follow.