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A Green party attempt to bolster its credibility on defence has triggered furious internal backlash. A group of members, academics, veterans and serving military personnel drew up a motion this month proposing an overhaul of Green defence policy. Its authors claim the proposals offer a ‘principled, credible’ approach to the military that ‘robustly protects the UK’ – and could help strengthen Zack Polanski’s national security credentials.
Among the supposedly credibility-boosting measures are proposals to scrap the party’s commitment to end anti-ballistic missile-related activity in Britain and drop the pledge requiring drones to be under human control ‘at all times’, with every launch subject to parliamentary approval. The motion also calls for an expansion of the reserve forces and states that those aged 16 and over ‘may benefit’ from apprenticeships and educational programmes within the armed forces. The raft of policies, which is set to be voted on at the Green party conference this autumn, was leaked to The Times in an effort to demonstrate to the public that Polanski takes the defence of Britain seriously. Only 17 per cent of the public trust the radical left party to protect its people, according to YouGov.
