How many times have you heard the word ‘green’ in this election?

It seems as if the current Mayor of London and the Conservative candidate are falling over each other to try and sound a little bit more like me, but Greens are the only ones offering Londoners a real green recovery from the coronavirus crisis.

Since the Mayor and Assembly were first created, Greens have been leading the way in City Hall. Ken Livingstone recognised the influence of Green Assembly Members when he asked me as a leading Green to write a foreword to the first ever Climate Action Plan from City Hall.

And over the last five years since I was elected to the Assembly, Greens in City hall have continued to set the agenda, pushing the Mayor to declare a climate emergency, winning new funding for youth services, and raising the bar on renting and housing policy.

Leading the way is something Greens are used to. Time and again, Greens have put forward ideas that are smeared as being unrealistic when first proposed, only to be picked up in the mainstream soon after.  

Look at something like a Universal Basic Income – an idea that we have had as party policy since before I was first a member at the turn of the century. In 2019, we were the first party in the UK to put a fully-costed basic income into our general election manifesto, and now the Senedd, four out of five of the main Scottish parties, some within the London Assembly and a number of councils have called for greater exploration of the idea, or trials in our towns and cities across the country.

In London, I spend my time as an Assembly Member putting good ideas in front of the current Mayor and pushing him to pick them up. Sometimes he listens. 

For years, I lobbied him on rent controls, and he has admitted they were a good idea. He also came around to giving residents on council estates a vote to stop demolition of their homes. It’s great when our ideas are finally put into practice, but it begs the question – why should Londoners have to wait?

It’s especially frustrating when there are still huge gaps in the current Mayor’s manifesto for re-election. He is stubbornly pushing ahead with the toxic Silvertown Road Tunnel that experts say will increase traffic across south and east London.

And I have never understood why he chose only to have the much-needed larger Ultra Low Emission Zone cover part of London. Sadiq Khan stood in 2016 promising to be a Mayor for all Londoners, and all Londoners need protection from deadly air pollution.

I have worked hard to give Londoners something hugely positive to vote for

I know that with the Mayor’s powers alone, we can get London to a zero carbon transport system by 2030, but we won’t do it without leadership that has the right ambition and urgency.

To me, the best leadership is bottom up and Greens have listened to Londoners and packed the policies in our manifesto with their experiences, their ideas and their wisdom. These new ideas add up to a real programme to work together to transform London.

From young people, we have created a trial of a basic income to kickstart careers in business and the arts. From nurses and key workers forced to live further and further from the hospitals and services they run, we have a plan to flatten the fare zones, bringing down travel costs for everyone in outer London.

And from my fellow renters, we have plans to help them form co-ops to take back their homes from landlords and a commitment to work with renters across the country and other city Mayors to win the powers we need to finally bring down runaway rents.

In debates and interviews, it feels as if there has been no spark, no excitement at working with Londoners from the other candidates and no new ideas.

In fact, I believe that we have mainly heard problems and negativity from them, not enough solutions or optimism. We can do so much better than this, and I have worked hard to give Londoners something hugely positive to vote for instead.

These are the ideas that will build a secure future that will help London and other cities get through this crisis and weather the next storms that come. And we need these ideas in action now, not later once the other parties catch up.

I’m proud of my record of pushing the current Mayor to take up good ideas, but it’s time to cut out the middle man. Green Mayors are being elected all over Europe and, on 6 May, you can do something amazing here too.

Put the Greens as your first choice in the London election for Mayor and know that every vote will count in the election for the London Assembly as well.

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