Greens call on Government to take ‘swift action’ as new MPs arrive at Parliament

The party quadrupled its seats at the General Election and now has four MPs, including both party co-leaders.

The party’s four new MPs gathered outside the Houses of Parliament (Ian West/PA) (PA Wire)

The Green Party pledged to push Labour into “bolder” action on climate change and inequality as its four new MPs arrived at Westminster.

The party quadrupled its representation in the Commons at last week’s election, winning seats in Suffolk, Herefordshire and Bristol as well as retaining its existing seat in Brighton.

Co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay hugged on College Green, where they met on Monday afternoon for the first time since their election victories, along with fellow new MPs Sian Berry and Ellie Chowns.

With four times the representation in the House of Commons, we do hope and aim to influence the debate, whether that’s through motions, amendments, questions, work on committees and so on

Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer

Speaking to the PA news agency, Ms Denyer described the moment as “history in the making” and said the Greens would be using their new seats to hold Labour’s feet to the fire on a range of issues.

She said: “With four times the representation in the House of Commons, we do hope and aim to influence the debate, whether that’s through motions, amendments, questions, work on committees and so on.

“And we’ll be pushing Labour to, especially in these first 100 days, take some swift actions on those low-hanging fruit that they could take to help make this country a fairer, greener place straight away.”

She cited scrapping the two-child benefit cap and revoking approval for the Rosebank oil field in the North Sea as two key aims for her party.

She added: “My concern is that the Labour Party rolled back on a lot of their policies before they even got into power and so a lot of voters are concerned that they will continue to do so in government.

“And that’s why so many people told us they were voting Green in this election, because they saw the value of having a team of principled Green MPs who share their values and can represent their concerns and their views in Westminster, pushing the Labour government to be a bit braver.”

We as Greens need to be ready to welcome the things we agree with but also highlight areas where we think Labour’s not quite got it right, or, often, we will be pushing them to go further on things like climate, on things like the NHS

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay

Co-leader Mr Ramsay said he welcomed the new government’s decision to lift the de facto ban on onshore wind farms, but also wanted to see Labour go further, especially on home insulation.

He told PA: “Given the new government has hit the ground running, to be fair, in setting out its agenda, we as Greens need to be ready to welcome the things we agree with but also highlight areas where we think Labour’s not quite got it right, or, often, we will be pushing them to go further on things like climate, on things like the NHS.”

Mr Ramsay also defended his opposition to a string of electricity pylons planned for his Waveney Valley constituency, saying residents were concerned about their impact on agricultural land and the local landscape.

Calling for an appraisal of other options, including an offshore grid, he said: “What I’m arguing for is a pause while the other options are considered because of course we need the infrastructure, it’s a matter of doing it in the right way that has a long-term benefit.”