Green Party pledges tax hike on most wealthy in manifesto to 'mend broken Britain'
The Greens attacked both Labour and the Conservatives when they launched their manifesto on Wednesday, ITV News' Political Reporter Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe reports.
Words by James Gray, ITV News Producer
The Green Party has pledged to end the "conspiracy of silence" around tax, promising to raise more money from the wealthy as it unveiled its manifesto for the General Election.
The tax on multimillionaires and billionaires will be used to fund improvements to health, housing, transport and the green economy, the party said.
Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay said the party - which launched its manifesto in Brighton and Hove on Wednesday - wants to create a fairer system and ask those "with the broadest shoulders to pay more".
He attacked both Labour and the Conservatives for hiding plans to cut public services rather than confronting "the need for a fairer tax system."
Here, ITV News explains the key policies the Greens unveiled as part of their manifesto.
Watch a summary of the key announcements made by Green Party co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay at the launch of their party's General Election manifesto
Tax
The party's manifesto said it would introduce a Wealth Tax of 1% annually on assets above £10 million and of 2% on assets above £1 billion.
Among other measures, it also pledged to reform Capital Gains Tax to "align the rates paid by taxpayers on income and taxable gains", as well as remove the Upper Earnings Limit, which "restricts the amount of National Insurance paid by high earners".
The party estimates that these measures could raise "additional revenue of between £50 and £70 billion per year in 2024 prices".
The Greens also said "privatisation has failed" and promised to bring water companies, railways and the five big retail energy companies into state ownership.
Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said her party's manifesto is "based on investing to mend broken Britain and offer real hope and real change".
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."
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But the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the Green Party's manifesto proposals will come with a "real economic cost" and increase disincentives to work.
IFS Deputy Director Helen Miller said: "Many of the measures would combine to increase disincentives to work and to invest.
"Accounting for the fact that we would expect potentially large responses to such a significant increase in taxes, it is unlikely that the measures would raise as much revenue as expected.
"And while some of the measures are targeted at the wealthy, the effects of the package would be much broader.
Ms Miller added: "It is clear where the Green Party's ambitions lie - a much bigger role for the state, better-funded public services and, of course, a swifter transition to net zero.
"It is unlikely that the specific tax-raising measures they propose to help achieve all this would raise the sorts of sums they claim - and certainly not without real economic cost."
Environment
The Greens are committed to ensuring the UK transitions to a zero-carbon society as soon as possible and more than a decade ahead of the government's existing target of 2050.
If elected, the party said its MPs would push to cancel fossil fuel licences that have already been agreed - including Rosebank in Scotland - and all new fossil fuel extraction projects in the UK.
Additionally, it said it would look to remove all oil and gas subsidies, introduce a carbon tax on all fossil fuel imports and domestic extraction, and push for wind to provide 70% of UK energy by 2030.
Mr Ramsey said the climate crisis has been "pretty much absent from this election campaign so far".
"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," he added.
"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."
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Housing
A programme called the Green Economic Transition has been put forward to upgrade homes across the UK to increase their energy efficiency, which the party said will make them warmer and cheaper to run.
To achieve this the party said it would invest more than £30 billion over five years to help insulate homes.
The Greens, as part of their manifesto, launched the Right Homes, Right Place, Right Price Charter, which would require local authorities and national government to work together to deliver homes people can afford to rent or buy.
The party also promised to provide 150,000 new social homes every year by the end of the next Parliament.
NHS & healthcare
The party has promised to spend £50 billion per year on health and social care by 2030.
Mr Ramsay said his party's funding would be used to "defend and restore the NHS", and "guarantee an NHS dentist for everyone".
He added that the Greens would say a "categoric no to privatisation in our health service".
Other health pledges made by the party concern support in a change to the law for assisted dying for those with terminal diseases, and to end all new cases of HIV by 2030. To achieve the latter, the party said it would advocate for a joined-up evidence based approach - including access to the HIV prevention pill online, in pharmacies and from GP services.
Foreign policy
As part of its foreign policy objectives, the party said it will seek to rejoin the European Union (EU) "as soon as the political conditions are right".
It's manifesto addressed both the Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Gaza conflicts, revealing the Greens would continue to support Ukraine in the former, while pushing for an immediate bilateral ceasefire in the Middle East.
The document also said that the party would pursue a process of dismantling its nuclear weapons, cancel the Trident programme and remove all foreign nuclear weapons from UK soil.
Education
The Greens have pledged to scrap university tuition fees and restore support grants for students attending higher education.
It also promised to grow school funding by £8 billion - £2 billion of which will represent a pay uplift for teachers.
Four-day working week
As part of efforts to "defend and extend workers' rights", the party's manifesto said it would push for a move to a four-day working week.
The Greens would also advocate for an increase in the minimum wage to £15 per hour - regardless of age.
It added the cost to small businesses of doing this would be offset by reducing their National Insurance payments.
And the party would push for equal employment rights for all workers from their first day of employment, including those working on zero-hours contracts.
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