English local elections: UK needs 'a green recovery' says Greens co-leader

The UK needs "a green recovery" from the Covid pandemic, Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley has said as he launched their local election campaign.

Mr Bartley said people "desperately need hope" after an "incredibly tough year".

He said his party would campaign in England for more green jobs, affordable public transport and warmer homes.

The Green Party of England and Wales currently runs, in coalition with other parties, 17 councils.

Local elections will take place on 6 May for councils, mayors, police and crime commissioners in England and the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments.

Launching his party's campaign in Battersea Park, south London, Mr Bartley said the country need a "recovery from this pandemic that doesn't take us back to business as usual".

He argued that a green recovery was "not about having less but is about having so much more".

"We're ready for millions of new jobs, in green jobs, in industries that aren't threatening our future; we're ready for homes that are warmer and cheaper to run, within minutes of the services we need; we're ready for a public transport system that is efficient affordable and not based on profit."

He said the coronavirus lockdown had "put the spotlight on what we really value - the people we love, our communities, security, our access to nature and green spaces".

He added that "a green future is not a pipe dream - it is within our grasp."

In an interview following the launch, Mr Bartley said the pandemic had proved it was possible to do things differently.

"We realised we could take cars off the road; we could pay people's wages; business, if they were supported properly could transition and operate in different ways."

Mr Bartley - who co-leads the party with Sian Berry - said he was hopeful of building on the Green Party's electoral success in 2019 when the party gained almost 200 councillors.

The party's biggest gain came in Brighton and Hove where it won eight additional councillors. However it lost seats in Bath, North East Somerset and Cambridge.

Overall the Green Party came in fourth place behind the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats, winning 12.1% of the vote.