UK general election live: Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay to face Nick Robinson’s questions

Do we all have to share some pain in order to pay for the gain
of a cleaner, safer environment and a planet not threatened by catastrophic
climate change?

For years environmentalists have answered yes to that question.

Not now. Not in this election at least. For the latest of my
Panorama interviews with party leaders, I’ve been speaking to the Green Party’s
Adrian Ramsay – who says the transition to net zero needn’t be painful.

I asked him about the price of the party’s plans to scrap all –
that’s almost 30 million – petrol and diesel cars over the next decade. Spoiler
alert – it’s an awful lot of money.

We discussed whether reducing meat consumption – as recommended
by the UK Climate Change Committee – would mean taxing the two and a half
billion burgers we eat every year.

The Green Party is promising to spend a vast sum – an extra
£145bn in day to day spending more than we spend now. It claims it can pay for
much of that by taxing the richest with a new wealth tax – a policy that has
yet to raise really big sums anywhere on earth.

They do not spell out the cost to all of us of a new carbon tax
– a tax on anything that produces the carbon dioxide which warms the planet
which would increase the price of driving, flying, deliveries, buying and
consuming much of what we enjoy now.

All this number crunching matters because the independent
Institute for Fiscal Studies has criticised all parties for making promises
they can’t afford. It says the Greens – like Reform UK – claim to have “radical
ideas which can realistically make a positive difference when in fact what they
propose is wholly unattainable”.

This, the IFS says, “helps to poison the entire political
debate”.

See what Adrian Ramsay says to that, and his views on open
borders, legalised drugs, trans rights and safe spaces on this page from 19:00,
or on BBC One (excluding BBC One in Scotland and Wales – see full TV listings
here).

This is the sixth leaders’ interview I’ve done. You can watch
any or all on BBC iPlayer – search for BBC Panorama Interviews.

The
final interview – with Sir Ed Davey of the Liberal Democrats – is this Friday
evening