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Key events
Millward calls for immediate takeback of ‘failed’ water companies
She calls for national takeover of South East Water and Thames Water, without compensation for shareholders. She tells conference:
Burnham’s 10 year plan of gentle threats and vague notions of control is not enough. Too many of our water companies have already failed.
Right here in Sussex, we too often find ourselves driving to pick up bottled water because nothing is coming out of our taps.
Not a single major reservoir has been built in this country since the beginning of privatisation 35 years ago.
And so, today, the Green Party is announcing that we would, immediately – not in 10 years, but before Christmas, bring South East Water and Thames Water back into public ownership at no cost to the tax payer.
We have all the tools we need to make it happen. Forget compensation for shareholders and creditors, these are insolvent companies.
Millward sketches out the scenario of “hyper scaled data centres that guzzle energy to make a mockery of climate progress.”
“I feel the despair of young people who tell me they are terrified, that they don’t want to live in a future of climate wreckage and fake everything.
Take a breath. Look around you. We love it here. We don’t want your post human reality. We want this world, the soil between our toes, the trees, that give us shelter and shade, the food we grow with our own hands, the tastes of the ground it comes from. It might seem crazy, but friends, we have all the power that we need.”
Millward’s walked out to ‘You’ve Got The Love’ by The Source blasting over the speakers.
She says the party’s membership growth has been incredible this past year – “and it’s just the beginning” – noting the campaigning by members in local races across the country.
She launches into criticism of “tech oligarchal overlords” and “the handful of men who control too much for the rest of us”.
“They are hoarding the world’s weath, polluting the planet, and now trying to buy our democracy.”
You can watch the speeches from Rachel Millward and Mothin Ali in the stream above.
We’re expecting Millward to call for the Burnham government to immediately bring water companies back into public ownership.
She’ll suggest that a “10-year plan of gentle threats and vague notions of control is not enough.” This was laid out by Burnham at Labour conference last week.
Polanski called for rent brakes to give people ‘breathing space’
The Greens’ deputy leaders are due to address members on Day 2 of their conference in Brighton shortly, and we’ll have a live stream of those remarks in the top of our blog.
But yesterday, party leader Zach Polanski used his conference speech to introduce a key new policy, calling for a “three-year emergency brake on private rents”.
He called for:
No rent rises above CPI wage growth or 2%, whichever is lower. No sudden hikes. No evictions under the guise of rent rises. No more uncertainty, no more fear.
That emergency brake would give renters vital breathing space. Let wages begin to catch up with the rents that have outstripped them for far too long.
And in the long term, we’ll put in place a national Fair Rents Guarantee – to keep rents affordable for everyone, forever. That doesn’t just mean cheaper homes, it doesn’t just mean government savings.
It will mean that people can stay in the places they love, close to their family and friends. It will mean young people can take those first amazing, exhilarating steps into independence and have full lives waiting for them on the other side.
Young families able to live around the corner from the in-laws, not crammed into their spare room.
Anti-migrant demonstrations planned in Southampton and Dover
We can also expect anti-migrant demonstrations to be taking place on the south coast this afternoon with police on alert in Southampton and Dover.
A group called South Coast Patriots has organised the protests, and are expected to be met by counter-protesters from the local Southampton Stand Up To Racism group.
Police have issued a ban on face coverings in the area.
Farage has ‘not been believed’ on safety fears, says Tice
Meanwhile, Reform leaders this morning have been speaking about the fact that the man acccused of murdering former party spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe has also been charged with a terror plot against Nigel Farage.
Deputy leader Richard Tice told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme his party leader has “not been listened to” over his safety concerns.
Farage has repeatedly raised the threats against his personal security before, often in the context of justifying or explaining why he’s received significant financial donations.
Tice said: “(Farage’s) security and the risks to it, he’s talked about over over many times, many occasions, over many years.
“And I think what’s particularly upsetting for those of us in and around him is sometimes he’s not being believed, not being listened to, and you know we have just got in a sense, deep regret over everything that’s happened over a long period of time.”
Police charged Joshua Kerry, 28, with the terror plot on Friday. He already stands accused of the brutal murder of Widdecombe, 78, a former Reform representative and Tory minister, who died on 8 July at her home in Devon.
Opening summary
Good morning and welcome to the UK politics live blog where cost-of-living issues are top of mind as diesel surges past £2 a litre for the first time.
That’s a 40% increase since the start of the year, meaning the cost of filling up an average family car is now £110, nearly £32 more than before the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran in late February.
The eight-months long war now has choked off key global shipping routes, blocking supplies from Gulf oil producers. On Friday, G7 countries including the UK bowed to pressure from US President Donald Trump and released 100 million barrels of oil and diesel.
But there are still spiralling ramifications on the cost of energy, food, transport and housing.
Greens leader Zack Polanski yesterday used his party conference speech yesterday to call for an emergency brake on rent rises. Party deputy leaders today will announce a policy to provide guaranteed jobs for 18-24 year olds.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, ahead of the Conservatives party conference kicking off tomorrow, will also anounce later today a childcare benefit for those on over £100,000.
Meanwhile early word of the flavour of Chancellor John Healey’s first Budget, to be delivered in a few weeks time, suggests it will be a careful one aimed giving reassurance households and businesses, with targeted assistance, as opposed to any major tax or spending hikes.
Stick with us and we’ll bring you the latest updates from the ongoing Green party conference, as well as wider political developments.
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