ANKARA
The Green Party has launched its election manifesto, calling for a "peaceful political revolution" to end economic austerity and increase public spending.
Speaking on Tuesday in Dalston, east London, party leader Natalie Bennett said austerity was “making the poor, the disadvantaged and the young pay for the greed and the fraud of the bankers.”
"No one in this, the world’s sixth-richest economy, should fear not being able to put food on the table or not being able to keep a roof over their head," she said, pledging a "politics that is founded in humanity."
She announced her party’s plan to increase the minimum wage to £10 an hour by 2020 and increase the top rate of tax to 60 percent on those earning over £150,000 -- a policy the party claims will raise £2 billion a year.
The Greens would also introduce a maximum pay ratio of 10 to 1 between the highest and lowest paid individuals in the workplace.
On public services, the Green Party pledged to stop the "creeping privatization of the NHS" by repealing the controversial 2012 Health and Social Care Act, cut rail fares by 10 percent and re-nationalize the rail network so they can be "run for the benefit of passengers, not shareholders."
The health budget would increase by £12 billion per year and a citizen’s pensions of £310 a week for couples, or £180 for single people, would also be introduced.
Caroline Lucas, the party’s former leader and only elected MP, also spoke at the manifesto launch, saying the environment could not be ignored in times of economic hardship.
"It’s not something that can be discarded when times are tough, like that extra cappuccino on the way to work," she said.
The Greens called for an end to fracking, a technique used to extract gas and oil from shale rock which critics say causes significant environmental damage.
Lucas was herself arrested at an anti-fracking protesting in August 2013.
They would also increase national spending on recycling and waste disposal by 50 percent and aim to recycle 70 percent of domestic waste by 2020.
The issue of cold homes was another key theme of the manifesto, which the Greens aimed to tackle by introducing a free nationwide insulation program.
Lucas told BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday morning: "We believe if we invest in insulating people's homes, we can get their fuel bills down on a permanent basis.
“For every £1 invested in this program, it's estimated that £1.27 comes back to the economy in terms of the benefit in jobs and reduction on the NHS bill."
The party said the policies would all be funded through a variety of measures aimed at the wealthy, including: hiring 15,000 more people at revenue and customs to crack down on tax avoidance; increasing corporation tax from 20 to 30 percent, raising £12 billion per year; implementing an annual 2 percent wealth tax on those who earn more than £3 million, raising £25 billion per year; introducing a financial transaction tax on banks, also known as the Robin Hood Tax, and saving £200 billion over 30 years by scrapping the country’s nuclear deterrent.
In the same interview, Lucas ruled out backing a center-right Conservative government under any circumstances, but said her party was open to supporting a minority center-left Labour government on a “case-by-case basis”.
She said: "That would give us a real opportunity to push Labour on the policies we know the public wants.
"Whether that's scrapping nuclear weapons or reversing the privatization in our NHS, whether that's returning local schools to local control or bringing rail back into public ownership."
The party is running a record 571 candidates this election.
Earlier this year, they underwent what they called a “Green surge” as their membership increased to 59,000 -- more than the right-wing UKIP and the centrist Liberal Democrats, the two other minor parties in British politics.
The U.K. general election will take place on May 7, 2015.
