Greens leader outlines 'peaceful, political revolution'

In the heart of trendy, urban east London, Green party leader Natalie Bennett launched her manifesto for a "peaceful, political revolution" based on redistributing wealth and expanding the public sector.

Putting forth a "model for the end of Thatcherism" on the same day as David Cameron evoked the Iron Lady by extending her right-to-buy policy , Ms Bennett urged a vote for "a new politics" with a "Robin Hood tax" on banks, a wealth tax on individuals with more than £3m, a bigger crackdown on tax avoidance than her rivals and a 60p top rate of income tax.

Ms Bennett said tax increases would fund 1m public sector jobs on a living wage, a larger HMRC to tackle tax avoidance and 20 per cent more government spending than forecast for this year.

The Robin Hood tax would resemble taxes on financial transactions backed by France, Germany, Italy and Spain and would contribute to a minimum wage of £10 an hour by 2020, she said.

The Green party is currently polling at around 5 per cent but is unlikely to win more than one or two seats due to the UK's first past the post voting system that favours larger parties. It currently has one MP, Caroline Lucas, of Brighton Pavilion.

Ms Bennett said the Greens would support a minority Labour government in a hung parliament on a case by case basis. It would use its influence to push for electoral reform, to end the Trident nuclear deterrent and "an end to the disastrous policy of austerity". Scottish Greens this week have demonstrated against the Faslane naval base where the Trident submarines are housed.

Ms Lucas said tackling climate change would underscore all Green policies because the environment could not be abandoned when times were hard, unlike "that extra cappuccino on the way to work". The Green party has said it would cut greenhouse emissions by 90 per cent on 1990 levels.

The party expects its policies to result in a net gain to the exchequer of £898bn by 2020, a claim many dispute because of the possible impacts of capital flight and an exodus of alienated businesses and the rich.

Indeed, the Greens were the only political party not to appear at a business debate hosted by Bloomberg earlier on Wednesday. Ukip could not attend either, but sent a video outlining its intentions towards business while Green policies were left to be explained by the broadcaster.

An analysis by Populus in February found the Green Party "clearly skews younger - with those aged 18-24 much more likely to support the party" and support "increas[ing] with educational attainment".

It also found the party is more popular with public sector workers than private.

"We are targeting 12 key seats across England and Wales . . . Our policies, from free tuition fees to lifting all pensioners out of poverty, have wide appeal," Ms Bennett said.

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