Labour's block on Tory-limiting alliance a 'betrayal', says Lucas
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Version 0 of 1. The co-leader of the Green party, Caroline Lucas, has said the Labour leadership is blocking a desire among many of the party’s members for some form of electoral alliance to limit Conservative gains, saying this was a betrayal of the British people. Lucas announced her party’s election policy on Brexit – calling for a second referendum to ratify any deal and give people the option of staying in the EU – at a launch event in Hackney, east London, on Tuesday. Lucas said she believed many in Labour supported the idea of a progressive alliance and accused the party of giving the Tories a blank cheque for a hard Brexit. She said the fact that opinion polling was showing Theresa May could be returned to office with a majority of more than 100 seats “ought to be a wake-up call to Labour, to recognise that they have a responsibility to protect people in this country from the worst of harsh, cruel Tory policy. The fact they won’t even sit down and talk about it from the top is a real betrayal of people.” The idea of a progressive alliance has seen the Liberal Democrats decide to not contest Lucas’s Brighton Pavilion seat, and the Greens in turn stepping aside in an adjoining constituency. While the Greens have opted not to fight the Labour marginal of Ealing Central and Acton, there has as yet been no reciprocity from Labour. This has come despite calls from local party figures and senior MPs to cooperate in an attempt to avoid a potential Conservative landslide. Lucas, who will face a Labour challenger in her seat, said she felt any moves towards cooperation were being blocked at the top, though she did not know whether this meant Jeremy Corbyn’s office. “The trouble is, I don’t even know what the top is any more, and whether that’s Jeremy’s office or the NEC,” she said. “So it’s being blocked, but who knows where? I think it’s even more frustrating for Labour party members who are sending us as many strong messages as they know how to the various elements of the top to say: this is barking mad. “The reason that it so matters is that this is the election to do it. Theresa May is so hell-bent on the most extreme policies, whether extreme Brexit or her social policies, and she’s on course, if we look at the polling now, to come back with a majority of 100 or more.” The call for some form of alliance comes even as Lucas emphasised her party’s significant differences with Labour over Brexit. Lucas said last June’s referendum “should be the start, not the end, of the democratic process” and that people needed a second vote on any final deal. She said: “It would be ludicrous to suggest people couldn’t change their minds about which way to vote as facts change and experience becomes clearer. And in the same way, it gives them the right to revisit a referendum result, as long as the parties are clear about the options on the table.” Lucas was scathing about Labour’s Brexit policies, saying the party “haven’t only given the Tories a blank cheque for a hard Brexit; they’ve given them a lift to the bank and helped them cash it in”. After the speech, Lucas said such differences were immaterial to any progressive alliance, as that was intended only to bring enough MPs to secure electoral reform. Brexit was “a key differential” between the Greens’ and Labour’s election offerings, she said. “It certainly resonates on the doorsteps of Bristol and Brighton, where I’ve been spending most of my time. I think people feel that Labour has let them down, that they’re in chaos.” She said Labour had so far proved chaotic in parliament trying to work out its approach to the issue. “It’s frustrating and it’s painful. You just feel that the people deserve better, and given the party’s own history, Labour deserves better than the kind of shambles that’s going on. The absence of real principle is desperately disappointing.” |