The Green Party has
warned that the new administration led by Liz Truss could further fuel problems
around climate change and inequality.
Truss won the
leadership of the Conservative Party following a sometimes-bruising internal
election campaign initiated by the resignation of Boris Johnson in July,
beating rival Rishi Sunak to gain 57% of the votes cast by party members [1].
Her plans for helping
families struggling to make ends meet as the cost-of-living crisis continues
are focused on a £30 billion package of tax cuts, including to green levies on
energy bills.
Green Party co-leader
Carla Denyer described reported plans by the incoming prime minister to
encourage oil and gas companies to extract more fossil fuels from the North Sea
and plans to cut the green levy as “reckless” and demonstrated that Liz Truss
was “making
an ideological choice to curry favour with friends and Tory Party donors in the
oil and gas industry” [2].
Adding that “Burning more fossil fuels will simply speed up
climate breakdown, giving us more extreme heat, floods, storms and food
shortages in the UK and across the world”.
The Greens are calling for the new prime minister to act on
the immediate impact of the cost-of-living crisis by lowering the energy price
cap to where it was in October 2021, launching a nationwide home insulation
programme and investing in renewable energy.
This, she said, “will provide the immediate action needed
to help people right now, as well as looking ahead to ensure costs and
emissions are kept to a minimum in the years to come”.
Despite having won over Conservative Party members, Truss
has, so far failed to convince the public she is on their side over the energy
crisis and the rising cost of living.
A YouGov poll reported by the Independent found that 67% of
all voters and 54% of Tory voters expressed doubts about her plans to help
those struggling to make ends meet, only 14% thought she would be an
improvement on Boris Johnson [3].
Speaking about the process by which Liz Truss was elected,
in which only members of the Conservative Party had a vote (0.1%of the
electorate) Carla Denyer having our most senior politician chosen “by such a
small and unrepresentative group of people, is a disaster for the UK and the
climate”.
Carla Denyer said that “immediate action” was needed to
help individuals and families who are going to struggle this winter and that
there was also a need to “look ahead to ensure costs and emissions are kept to
a minimum in years to come”.
She added that “We can invest in a cleaner, greener, more
affordable future, but doing so was a “political choice”, and that the Greens
urged “Liz Truss to take a path that helps create a fairer society while
tackling the climate crisis.”
[3] https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/uk-news/liz-truss-cost-of-living-b2161059.html
