THE Young Greens, the youth branch of the Green Party of England and Wales, have slammed Labour Leader Ed Miliband's plan to abolish Job Seekers' Allowance for 18-21 year olds.
Siobhan MacMahon, co-chair of the Young Greens, said: "This latest lurch to the right by Ed Miliband just shows how discredited the Labour party has become - inflicting yet more pain on a generation already struggling with a housing crisis, youth unemployment, low wages and tuition fees which Labour introduced.
"Young people need social housing, decent jobs and a Living Wage - not benefit cuts which only punish the most vulnerable for a crisis they didn't create. The Greens would deal with the deficit by ending the enormous subsidies to rail profiteers, scrapping Trident, ending costly state surveillance of citizens, and taxing the rich properly.
"The solution isn't to go after an already jilted generation by abolishing Job Seekers Allowance but to create hope for a demographic that has been betrayed by the three main parties through creeping privatisation of education, higher tuition fees, benefit cuts and falling wages.
"Ed Miliband has slapped his young voters in the face. With that, the Greens will continue to provide a progressive alternative to the failed austerity consensus that has gripped mainstream political leaders."