Green co-leader Jonathan Bartley responds to Fabian Society report

3 January 2017

* Jonathan Bartley: “Let’s not hand the future over to the regressives by refusing to work together.”

Jonathan Bartley, co-leader of the Green Party, has responded to the Fabian Society report [1] which said Labour should consider partnerships if the party is to stand a chance of getting into government.

Bartley warned that “the old politics is dying”, and if progressive parties do not work together they risk a generation of Conservative Government.

Jonathan Bartley, co-leader of the Green Party, said:

“If those of us on the left and centre-left don’t think about working together strategically then we risk consigning this country to a generation of Conservative government. For the sake of our NHS, our welfare state and our environment we desperately need to look at how we work together to beat the Tories at the next election – and it’s good to see the idea of some form of progressive agreement gaining so much ground in recent weeks. Those MPs opposing even the idea of working together should take a long hard look at the state of our public services and the lives of those who are struggling in their own communities and ask themselves whether dismissing this concept at such an early stage really serves our country well. If 2016 taught us anything it’s that the old politics is dying – let’s not hand the future over to the regressives by refusing to work together. 

“No single party has a monopoly on wisdom and the ultimate aim for any true democratic must be that Britain becomes a thriving multi-party democracy, free from the shackles of an electoral system that shuts people out. That’s why a commitment to electoral reform must be at the heart of working together. With the Green Party, the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats in favour of truly representative elections it’s now down to Labour to show that they’re serious about giving people control by backing electoral reform and having an open conversation about how best to beat the Conservatives.

“The Green Party will continue to stand and contest elections, and we will campaign on the very many issues which define us from the other parties. But we’re also open to talking to those on the left willing to consider working together to deliver a fairer society and real democracy. Let’s not miss this opportunity to do things differently, and have a mature conversation about how to best protect our communities from a generation of Conservative rule.”

Notes:

  1. http://www.fabians.org.uk/publications/stuck/

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