New Green Party Leader tells Conference of her Vision for the Future
In her first conference speech today, Natalie Bennett, the Green Party Leader elected on 3rd September, spoke of her vision of more elected Greens across England and Wales.
She said:
“We want councillors in every major town and city around the country, in every county and district, and an MEP in every region of England and Wales.”
Ms Bennett has produced a plan for leadership for her first hundred days as leader and asked party members to ‘hold her to account’.
Ms Bennett, a campaigner in North London and a prominent ex-journalist, rounded on both the Coalition and the Labour party for what she called ‘decades of neoliberalism, privatisation and support for the welfare of multinational companies over the welfare of people’.
Turning her speech to the Paralympics sponsorship scandal and directly criticising Labour, she said:
“Outsourcing decisions on benefits for people with disabilities to the dreadful Atos, and promoting the demonization of benefit recipients was Labour's responsibilty.”
In her speech Bennett also criticised the government for failing to provide people with decent jobs:
“The current politics have failed to deliver stable, decently paid jobs for millions. Just look at the youth unemployment figures. Just look at the scandals of zero-hours contracts.”
Ms Bennett went on to call the Green Party the ‘real opposition’. She said:
“We have to be the opposition to this disastrous Coalition government. ..
We can do it because we have the vision of a better, more equal, healthier Britain, and we know how to get there.”
Ends
The full conference speech will be available online soon.