The Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has unveiled plans to overhaul the UK's education system. However, his speech was interrupted by Green New Deal Rising activists, who displayed a banner that read: "No more U-turns – green new deal now."
Starmer has previously committed to investing £28bn a year into a ‘green prosperity fund’ to tackle the climate crisis. The Labour Party has since scaled back this policy in favour of building up to the annual £28bn plan by halfway through a first parliament (roughly two-and-a-half years in).
Green New Deal Rising [GND Rising] is a movement of young people and activists “forcing politicians and fossil fuel executives to face up to the scale of the crises they’ve created.”
Sophia Coningham, an 18-year-old student who has just finished her A-levels, is one of the activists who interrupted Starmer's speech.
“I decided to take action today because I felt that the Labour Party really needs to make a clear sound about what side they're on,” she tells GLAMOUR. During the stunt, Sophia can be heard asking Starmer, “Which side are the Labour Party on?” he responds, “We are on the side of economic growth.”
Explaining why she interrupted Starmer's speech, Sophia says, “[The Labour Party] should naturally be on our side because what we're asking for isn't extreme.
“What we want will create jobs, which is what they say they want. It will tackle the climate crisis, which is an important principle, and it will really up raise the voice of young people.”
“Our generation, our vote, is being taken for granted.”
Sophia notes that during the stunt, Starmer said he'd speak to her later. “You know that's not what he really means,” she explains. "We got [to Sir Keir Starmer's speech] this morning, and they were like, "Yes, straight to the front." And it was like, "Four ethnic minority people, you go and sit down right at the front so we can get a great picture of you and Kier."
"And they were like, "Make sure that you clap at the right time and you present this position of us being really progressive and supported by young people."
She continued, "What's so frustrating is that we should be having this conversation about Rishi Sunak. We shouldn't be having it about Keir Starmer. And it feels like our generation, our vote, is being taken for granted that we will still stand up and vote for someone who doesn't necessarily align with our policies and our beliefs.
“So I feel like there's such a strong trend in political parties of seeing young people as images rather than people who have thoughts that might disagree with you.”
Sophia says that GND Rising has previously attempted to contact Starmer to discuss climate policies, but nothing had materialised. "We really needed to go to him directly to say, "We want you to take further action."
“[Starmer says he] wants to hear young people speak. Well, this is what we're saying, and you're not listening.
“He said very clearly that the biggest challenge that we face is climate delays. Well, unfortunately at the moment, he's one of those.”
For more from Glamour UK's Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
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