00:00Vote Green and make history. Actually we have a toxic combination right now
00:04of low wages and high bills and people in London are really really struggling and they need to
00:09know that they have councillors who are out there batting for them every single day,
00:13protecting local services, making sure we're investing in the community, that we have council
00:17homes, homes that people can actually afford to live in in London that are accessible, they're
00:22inclusive and affordable and also just to make sure that Green Party councillors only have two
00:27vested interests. We want to protect the communities and we want to make sure we're protecting our
00:31environment. Now it's important to say that in the last set of London elections, our best set ever,
00:36we won less than one percent of seats so the Green Party have traditionally underperformed in London
00:41and that's because Labour have had such a stronghold for so long. That stronghold looks like it's about
00:46to break, that's going to be huge progress and I expect to see places like Hackney Council at least
00:52go into no overall control and it's important the message that sends. That sends Labour dominance
00:57is over and it's time for the Green Party. Nigel Farage is offering divisive toxic politics that I
01:03don't think is welcome in London and so the Green Party offers both an alternative to that, hope and
01:09a plan. Again, I don't know if they will become Green councils, I really hope they do, but even going
01:14into no overall control when there's been decades and decades of Labour dominance in many of those places
01:19is sending a very clear signal both to this Labour government that you're unhappy with its direction
01:23but most importantly to London and those places because these are local elections and ultimately
01:28they're about your bins, your potholes, your local services and it's about making sure that Green
01:33councillors get those things right every single day. So our best election result ever across the country
01:37was in 2023 when we won 240 seats. I'm confident we will beat that so we will have record-breaking
01:44results
01:44in about 48 hours time. That all being said, as I've said already, I'm not complacent and no party is
01:50entitled to people's vote. I just know everywhere that I'm going in London people are stopping me
01:55constantly, in fact it just happened before we had this conversation, to say that they're feeling
01:58hopeful and they're feeling inspired and actually they're not voting just to stop something which is
02:03the Labour Party in reform, they're actually voting for something. They're voting for a party that wants
02:07to lower bills, that wants to make London an affordable city to live in. They're seeing the work of people
02:12like
02:12Zora Mondani in New York, amazing policies that are bringing hope to a whole city and they're saying
02:17why can't we have that in London and the point is we can have that in London and it starts
02:22by voting
02:22Green on Thursday. Also we need to make sure that there is community policing, there is community
02:26safety but actually far too often policing is the very last step where it means that lots of things on
02:32the way have failed and actually more than anything we need to look at preventative approaches, a public
02:37health approach to harm reduction and making sure we're investing in communities so these crimes aren't
02:41happening in the first place. And on tube strikes your parties sided very firmly with the RMT strikers
02:47when the recent walkouts, do you risk alienating Londoners by that stance? Well I always think
02:54it's important to first of all just do the right thing and the right thing is to recognise this is
02:58about worker safety, these are the people when you use the tube who get us to work safely or just
03:02get
03:03us around the city safely every single day. Rather than saying we're siding though the point I'm really
03:07making is that we need to get around the table and have the negotiation. The cost of living is
03:11the number one priority because as I said people are facing a toxic combination right now of low
03:15wages and high bills and their living standards are really being squeezed. One of the most worrying
03:19things around the cost of living is the energy price rise that is undoubtedly heading down the track
03:24from the Iran war and so what the government should be doing I think is keeping that cap in place
03:28after
03:29June and July to make sure that people who are working two or three jobs aren't seeing rising energy bills.
03:34And by the way though it's not just people who are living in poverty who are worried about the price
03:38of these rises. I think people who might have been comfortable or well off just a few years ago
03:43are also struggling about the fact that a bill is about to hit on their doorstep.
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