Leyton & Wanstead 2017: Green Party

Written by Ashley Gunstock Saturday, 03 June 2017

Ashley Gunstock

Ashley Gunstock of the Green Party is one of four candidates standing in the Leyton and Wanstead constituency at this month's General Election. Here's why he thinks he deserves your vote on 8 June.

The Green Party is riding a wave of support in Leyton and Wanstead, having surged to third place in the constituency in the 2015 General Election, ahead of both UKIP and the Liberal Democrats. This year, once again, I am asking people to vote for what they believe in.

In blind tests, where people are shown a range of policies and asked to choose which ones they prefer without knowing which parties they come from, Green Party policies consistently come out on top. If everyone actually votes for the party whose policies they most agree with, the Greens will have a real chance in this election. In fact, these policies are so popular that they are frequently adopted by other parties. Pledges to scrap student tuition fees, bring the railways back into public ownership, make the minimum wage a living wage and end the government's misguided and callous austerity programme were all in the Green Party manifesto in 2015, demonstrating that the Greens and their ideas are consistently ahead of the field.

Today, the Green Party is once again offering a powerful and compelling vision for building a better, bolder Britain. We are promising to reverse the decline in funding for the NHS and plant the seeds for a new and flourishing public health service, and have pledged to introduce rent controls and build 500,000 socially rented homes to provide affordable homes to thousands of families.

As well as scrapping tuition fees, a Green government would reinstate the Education Maintenance Grant to ensure those from the poorest backgrounds are not blocked from attending university. We would give the people a vote on the final Brexit deal negotiated with the EU, offering a clear choice: accept the deal or remain an EU member. We would make sure that those who will be most affected by the referendum outcome are actually given a say by giving 16- and 17-year-olds the vote, and would also change our General Election voting system to one based on proportional representation, ensuring that the views of all voters are properly represented in Parliament.

Above all, Greens believe that we must liberate ourselves from the threat of climate change. By investing in renewables and phasing out coal, oil and gas plants, we will create clean air, rivers, parks and gardens, limit the danger of flooding and prevent fracking companies from drilling into our countryside.

These are the things I will fight for if elected as the MP for Leyton and Wanstead.

Leyton and Wanstead constituency prospective parliamentary candidates are: Ashley Gunstock (Green Party), John Cryer (Labour Party), Laura Farris (Conservative Party) and Ben Sims (Liberal Democrats).

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