Caroline Lucas is urging the Chancellor to use his budget to ease the ‘iron grip of austerity’ and match his own Government’s rhetoric on climate change by ‘stamping out fossil fuel subsidies’.

The Chancellor, who will present his budget tomorrow, is expected to announce a number of major infrastructure projects – including further road building across the UK. It’s also been suggested that he will ease tax for higher earners and cut Government spending by up to £4bn by 2020.

Caroline demanded that the budget is ‘climate-proofed’:

“We desperately need the Chancellor to use this budget to show that his Government is serious about tackling the climate crisis. As a first step that should mean climate-proofing infrastructure spending – and a red card for any project which doesn’t help the UK cut emissions. It should also mean ending subsidies for the fossil fuel industry – and cancelling tax breaks for fracking firms. Nothing in the budget should set us against the urgent need to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

“If the Chancellor wants to make a smart investment for a green economy he should immediately commit to rolling out a nationwide energy efficiency programme – to cut fuel bills, keep people warm in their homes, create thousands of jobs and tackle climate change. ”

She went on to call on the Chancellor to think again about cutting tax for the richest while slashing spending on payments to disable people.

“The iron grip of austerity has taken its toll on this country, and people are struggling to get by already. In that context it would be a gratuitous act of cruelty to slash help for disabled people. Doing so while cutting tax for high earners would be particularly vicious.”

“It’s clear that the Government need to rethink the slashing of our welfare state. That’s why they should commit to a modest amount of funding for an investigation into how a basic income scheme could protect people from financial insecurity and offer stability to the many precariously employed people in Britain.”

Caroline is demanding that the Government pledges to support local public transport:

“Rather than ploughing billions into road spending, or the white elephant that is HS2, the Government should be redoubling efforts to support local public transport. Many bus services are already dangerously underfunded, and the cost of travelling on public transport is far too high.”

ENDS

Caroline Lucas is available for interview tomorrow. Please call 07885 459 904 or email clucasmedia@parliament.uk to arrange