Lydia Somerville, Green

Green PPC (Totnes),

Lydia Somerville's reply

"Dear campaign team

Both personally and as a parliamentary candidate representing the Green Party, I fully endorse your concerns about tax justice. Unfortunately the UK’s current domestic and international economic policies have worked against this for decades and we now have a huge and unjustified disparity between rich and poor.

Yes, I believe that the rich should be taxed more and the poor less than at present. To redistribute the tax burden we want to introduce the new higher rate of income tax at 50% for incomes above £100,000 and to reintroduce the 10% tax band and the 22p basic rate.

The Green Party supports the Robin Hood tax, and for over 30 years has pressed for this kind of levy to be part of a raft of measures for urgently needed economic reform which would bring more fairness and equity into the UK and beyond. We agree that poverty is getting worse and is unlikely to get better without substantial reversal of policies which currently favour the wealthy, banks and multinationals at the expense of ordinary people. The local focus of Green Party policies favours local people, local jobs and keeps wealth creation local, this supports families both at home and abroad.

I can assure you that the reason I am running as a parliamentary candidate is because I am passionate about fairness and policies that will eradicate poverty by looking after everyone’s needs, and in particular those of the most vulnerable members of society. Here in south Devon we are making good progress with getting Green Party politicians elected onto local councils and the effects on local policies are already becoming apparent with stronger calls for local consultation and support for better play spaces, safer streets etc".

Best wishes,

Lydia Somerville

Green Party candidate for Totnes