Caroline Lucas Election 2017

This morning, as Mandy has explained, we're going to be talking

about air pollution in particular. It eats all too easy to ignore it

because you can't see it any more. Back in the last century, people

took action about air pollution because they literally couldn't see

that hand in front of them. You might have seen pictures on the TV

of the peacekeepers, as they were called. You couldn't see your way

down the road. Air pollution today is every bit as deadly as it was

then but it's every bit as deadly, but people ignore it. Our message to

the Government to date is that you cannot ignore our pollution and the

real worry is that they have been trying to avoid dealing with air

pollution, because for the last seven years, basically,

environmental lawyers in the courts have been battling on behalf of the

Government to try to avoid the Government having to take action on

air pollution. In the courts, the Government have been fighting this

really hard but the facts about dirty air are widely known. We need

action as soon as possible. Molly talked about the early deaths

associated with air pollution in Bristol city, but if you added up

across the country, in the UK around 40,000 early deaths are linked to

our pollution. 40,000 is a huge number. When you add in the fact

that the cost to our national Health Service, the cost to our economy out

of all of that, is ?20 billion, this really is an emergency and the idea

that we are trying to fight not to take this seriously is concerning.

Air pollution is a problem but it affects people differently. You are

more likely to suffer if you are very old or if you're elderly. You

are more likely to suffer if you're in poverty because you're more

likely to be living close to very busy roads. You're more likely to

suffer as well if you are not white, for the same reason, that you're

more likely to be in exposed areas. We are saying loudly and clearly

that this is a national health emergency. The air quality plan

which we are expecting to come from the Government today absolutely has

to meet some key bottom line is if it is to the aid plan which is

worthy of the name and that's why we're launching this now is a

challenge to the Government. As I say, first they tried to delay the

publication of this air plan, claiming publishing it would

unfairly influence local and national elections, but that last

ditch attempt at inaction was recently rejected. In a strongly

worded judgment, the High Court ruled that ministers had had plenty

of time to act, having been given this deadline from the European

Union and having known about it for a long time. Less than a week later,

and the day before people across the country went to the polls in the

local elections, the details of the plan were leaked to the Telegraph

newspaper. So much for the election rules. As we wait for the

Government's long overdue air pollution policy to be released, the

Green Party is today releasing its ten point check list for what a

serious air-pollution plan would look like. First and foremost, we

are saying that it absolutely must announce a new clean air act,

enshrining the right to breathe clean air into UK statute,

protecting the health not just people alive today but of the two

generations. It has to strengthen and expand the network of clean air

zones, including here in Bristol. When you have a clean air zone, that

means you take more radical action to prevent the most dirty cars going

into that zone. It must introduce nothing short of public transport

revolution. We need a huge investment in things like our buses,

trains and public transport, because the irony is that while the cost of

a car has been going down 20% since 1980, the cost of taking a bus,

taking a train, has been going up by more than 60% since that same

baseline, so our price signals are all wrong. We need to be investing

in public transport, getting people out of their cars. To help fund this

kind of comprehensive action that we need, what we're asking from the

Government is that the plan that they produce must set out how car

companies, he cheated vehicle emissions tests, that was over many

years, those car companies have to paper the damage that that will have

caused to our health and the environment. If you look at the

United States where they have had a similar problem, in the US, they

have managed to find those fickle companies $14 billion. That is a

huge -- they have managed to find those vehicle companies $14 billion,

a huge amount of money, and yet in the UK not a penny has been fined.

And yet the Government, supported by opposition, continues to support the

dirty vehicles up the past. Clean renewable energy must be supported,

as we have it in abundance. Anything short of wide reaching action on the

air-pollution emergency is unacceptable. If the Government plan

isn't strong enough then it will condemn thousands of children and

families to continue to suffer the deadly effects of what is an

entirely preventable crisis. We believe we have the right plan, we

believe that if we act now we can create a healthier future for you,

for your kids, for children right across the country.

The Speaker of the House of Commons demands order as things get a little

rowdy in the chamber. The right honourable gentleman will be heard

and the Prime Minister will be heard. The speaker is the central

figure in the Commons. It is he or she who calls MPs to make their

speeches, ask their questions, give their statements. Statement, the

Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. It's a pretty old

job, dating all the way back