The Creen Part has published its manifesto today.  It would be hard to imagine a more stark contrast than the one between the Green Party and Conservative Party manifestos.  Whilst the Tories are keen to ramp up sanctions and slash spending on disability benefits in order to fund tax cuts, the Greens want to give all disability benefits claimants a 5% rise, end sanctions and work towards introducing a universal basic income.

The Greens say that they would:

  • Restore the value of disability benefits with an immediate uplift of 5%.
  • End the unfair targeting of carers and disabled people on benefits.
  • Increase carer’s allowance by at least 10% a month.
  • Oppose plans to replace Personal Independence Payments (PIP) cash payments with ‘vouchers’, and in the long term reform intrusive eligibility tests like PIP.
  • Increase Universal Credit and legacy benefits by £40 a week.
  • End the unfair five-week wait for benefits which is pushing people into debt.
  • Abolish the two-child benefit cap and lift 250,000 children out of poverty.
  • Ensure that pensions are always uprated in line with inflation and keep pace with wage rises across the economy.
  • Scrap the bedroom tax.
  • End benefit sanctions.
  • Introduce a Universal Basic Income, although this would be the work of more than one parliament.

You can download the Green Party manifesto here.

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    Jane · 3 months ago
    On the issue of the proposed Conservative PIP reforms: the name of the benefit is “Personal INDEPENDENCE Payment”, by replacing this essential payment that gives sick and disabled people Independent choice on what they need to best support their individual needs, this Conservative Government (and any party who adopts the same plan) is in effect taking away Independence and I will not support them with my vote.
    Some comments are saying that they will vote Labour because they do not feel the Green Party is big enough to be a serious threat - and that is why they are not big enough! Stand up for what we should believe in and that is a party who have humanitarian values - where you are, according to their manifesto, not just a number and object of punishment.
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    Clare · 3 months ago
    Yes the greens are most pro claimant But they also are the party with the biggest tax burden for the people of this country They are a party who will not win the election So will use any seats gained to push the green agenda  Saying stuff when you know you are unlikely to end up in power is easy But they are consistent in their views But how we could afford it all If they did get in Is a question worth considering
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    avantika · 3 months ago
    i like Greens manifesto, they may be small party but if more people decided to vote them, they may have more seats in parliament and say for the people to make difference. every drop counts, i'm voting for Greens
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    David · 3 months ago
    As a Labour voter for that last 40+ years, I find the Greens are more condusive to my problems. Unfortunately they won't get enough votes to make a difference so I'll have to take my chance with Labour.
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      Alex · 3 months ago
      @Abi Exactly.  People think they need to vote tactically, but that'll just give Labour power to do anything they want.  Last time they were in power they were pretty awful. 

      I'm voting green because I want to vote for what I believe in. 
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      Abi · 3 months ago
      @David Surely voting would make the difference 
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    SkyB · 3 months ago
    The UBI is something that has happened elsewhere and it can work, with political will. A wonderful idea, true socialism, that would make big changes in the UK but sadly the Greens are unlikely ever to win power in the UK.
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    Julia Anderson · 3 months ago
    The Green Party seem to be the only party who would scrap the demeaning and frankly unworkable voucher scheme. The equivalent of free school meals with all the prejudice and stigma attached.
    The two main parties are so similar it is a very sad thing to see. We have no opposition or real choice. Labour has become so far right it no longer represents the people it was set up to support. It is far more supportive of right wing Conservatives, media moguls and wealthy businessmen than those most disenfranchised and vulnerable in society such as the sick, disabled, homeless, working poor. My vote will go to either the Greens or Plaid Cymru once I have read their manefesto.
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    Esther Nagle · 3 months ago
    If the green party were given a fraction of the air time Farage gets, the election could be very different. Compassion and positive action on the issues that matter to us and the world we live in. 
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    mark · 3 months ago
    am voting lab after listing the buissness backing them
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Rose · 3 months ago
    I'm voting Green for so many reasons but also because I'm disabled and my blood chills at the thought of any of the other parties and their inhumane and punitive attitude towards those with disabilities. 

    I am lucky because our new constituency boundaries make the Greens the strongest contender against the Conservatives here in the Waveney Valley. 

    We badly need a good MP to represent us because we have the worst dental and mental health provision in the UK and also the highest levels of child malnutrition. This is shocking in a rural area but everywhere around me I see families and the elderly struggling to heat their homes, feed themselves, pay their rent and run their cars.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Louise · 3 months ago
    I am voting Green, best plans by far. Will never vote for Labour again. It depends where you live, the important thing is to get rid of the Tories, any Labour government will be better than Tories. 
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    John Earle · 3 months ago
    I have been a Labour voter all of my adult life, even holding my nose to vote for Blair, but I can not in all good conscience vote for the current iteration. The rhetoric used around their stance 'we are the party of working people'. There are 16 million disabled people in the UK.

    11% of children are disabled
    23% of working age adults are disabled
    45% of pension age adults are disabled

    That is a force to be reckoned with. Of this, how many are not 'working people'? do we not matter because we are not working people, are we not to be included in their plans? We all know the effects the Tory party has had on the lives of disabled, but what Labour are offering, or rather not offering has ne even more concerned.

    Far too many people ask the usual, dismissive questions/statements. How will this be paid for? How much will it cost? Voting for them is a wasted vote, ad nauseam etc

    This is why we have the 2 parties having such a stranglehold on the electorate/elections. The Tories will offer £1 and sneakily take £3 from you. The Labour party? Lord Madelson did say they could take the existing core of the party’s working-class votes for granted because, according to Mandelson, they had ‘nowhere else to go’ and not considering removing the 2 child cap is indefensible, especially given the proposed increase of money to the arms industry.

    It is long past time we voted with our conscience and morality and voted for what suits our needs best, not what the first past the post duopoly requires us to do. We won't get PR, why would they bother, first past the post suits them best, without more smaller party and independent voices in parliament. The Tory party is dead in the water and Labour will win, regardless of how people vote.

    I'm a disabled, volunteer welfare rights adviser and know the hardship and damage that has been caused, to myself and the people I help. labour won't regard us in any way, it was Labour's Evette Cooper who introduced the system we have now, what will they do with a massive majority?

    All of the Green party manifesto is fully costed, the money is there, it is just going, or earmarked to go to the wrong people. It's our turn to have a slice. Don't you think?
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Michael · 3 months ago
    I'm Voting Green . The conservatives and Labour are now almost indistinguishable. I would vote for George Galloways Workers Party if there was one standing where I live. They are  the only party that represents the working class. Sadly Labour have been bought. Twenty percent of Labour’s sitting MPs have been funded by pro-Israel groups or individuals – including 15 who have been directly funded by the Israeli state.
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    Jo · 3 months ago
    Sadly I don’t think this party is strong enough to win against the 2 big contenders so they won’t get my vote.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    NicoHame · 3 months ago
    The Green's manifesto is by far the most sensible and compassionate. In my constituency though , a vote for Greenwould be a vote for ( con) servatives.
    I would love to put my cross next to their party.
    The Liberal Democrats are the only realistic option in our area.
    A coalition between Greens, Liberal Dems Plaid Cymru and SNP would be a way to go as FPTP favours the2 main parties and majority is never healthy democratically. Temptation for overarching power is tempting.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Anne Marie · 3 months ago
    How would all this be paid for? I might be a benefit claimant and be opposed to many of the plans of the current government but I am not a fool! It’s all academic anyway as this lot won’t touch real power. The Labour manifesto is the one that matters and they are keeping pretty quiet. 
    • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
      CC · 3 months ago
      @Anne Marie
      Firstly the fiscal rules are not a requirement, they are ideological.
      The money is there to pay for it, they plan to raise income via wealth taxes, and would also have the option of borrowing as there is room for much more borrowing.  Dont believe the tripe, that the fiscal rules are some sort of requirement to prevent the country going bust, its nonsense.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    ArchiesMum01 · 3 months ago
    And yet just like the Tories, the Green party are doing no more than giving the public what they want in order to secure their votes
    It all sounds great but how do they plan to fund treatments for some of the health conditions ie; mental health services & why would those who are able to work, do so?
    It sounds to me that they've cherry picked the bits of all the other manifesto's that they like & put them all together.
    It's by far the most unrealistic solution to the benefit issue
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Caroline · 3 months ago
    Hello, I have just moved down from Scotland to Kent and was awarded ADP (Adult Disability Payment) and mobility enhanced rate. I am now having to start from scratch applying for PIP. Does anyone have experience of doing this and would I automatically be given at least the equivalent PIP award? Going from England to Scotland you are automatically allocated ADP if you were on PIP.
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    Margo · 3 months ago
    Wishful thinking.
  • Thank you for your comment. Comments are moderated before being published.
    Sue · 3 months ago
    We can but hope. 
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    Emma · 3 months ago
    I love green values, I wish they had more MPs in parliament. I live in a labour held seat. I would vote green but wouldn’t make difference in my area, so I will vote labour as I can’t stand conservatives. They make my mental health worse

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