Greens plan to clip the wings of families who travel abroad more than once a year with ‘frequent flyer’ levies, scrap Trident and increase NI rates, under party’s election pledges
Britons who travel abroad more than once a year would face punitive ‘frequent flyer’ levies under Green Party proposals.
The party – which is on course to have its best ever general election result – also wants to raise National Insurance rates for those earning more than £50,000 and scrap the Trident nuclear deterrent.
Announcing a £70billion investment to mend ‘broken Britain’, the Greens said they would fund their plans through a wealth tax on assets above £10million and by expanding the windfall levy on energy giants.
At yesterday’s manifesto launch in the Brighton Pavilion constituency – their only seat in Westminster – Green Party co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay also proudly unveiled plans to ban domestic short-haul flights in the UK.
Under their ‘frequent flyer’ proposal, travellers taking ten flights a year would be forced to pay an extra £585.
Mr Ramsay told the Mail: ‘This is not intended to affect the average family. People who fly on holiday once a year would not be charged extra because we’re talking about frequent fliers.
‘Just 15 per cent of the population take 70 per cent of the flights. So we’re talking about business people or people who have wealth and fly frequently.’
The Greens have come under fire for their nuclear policies – which include cancelling the Trident nuclear programme and aiming to ‘phase out’ nuclear power.
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Nick Bowett – GreenWorld.org – Jan 2023: We need to think about cutting carbon equivalent emissions in every sector, including those that are difficult to decarbonise – such as aviation – in a culturally sensitive way. Introducing a frequent flyer levy would force frequent fliers to think more about their aerial carbon footprint and give them a financial incentive to lower it. …
Instead of hiking the price of all flights a fairer way to counter the burgeoning demand for air travel is to impose a frequent flyer levy. Under well detailed Green Party proposals, this would allow people to take one return flight a year, with no extra levy, so people could go on annual holidays and visit any family they may have abroad. A frequent flyer levy will make people consider if the trip they want to make is necessary and incentivise them to consider taking less carbon intensive forms of transport. …
The freedom to fly at will to almost any country in the world – in hours – is an incredible privilege which is now largely overlooked as travelling far afield has become so commonplace, but unfortunately, aviation is notoriously difficult to decarbonise. … Too much air travel is taking place which is warming our planet, hence damaging ecosystems which we rely on for food, and so forth. More British people travel abroad each year than any other nationality, so it is entirely fitting for the UK to show leadership on tackling this aspect of the climate emergency.
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