Advertisement

General Election 2015: Green's Amelia Womack 'Why Should Women Earn Less But Pay More?'

Yahoo's exclusive interview with the Deputy Leader talks white men, the Green Surge and that pink bus

Nine million women didn’t vote in the last General Election. With less than a month until Britain chooses the next Prime Minister, Yahoo is sitting down with female candidates from each of the main parties to talk about why women in the UK are feeling so disillusioned with politics and what their party plans to do about it. First up, we spoke to Amelia Womack, Deputy Leader of the Green Party.

A divided left could be the difference between a Tory or Labour government come May 7 thanks to the Green Surge and Nicola Sturgeon’s standout performance at the leader’s debate two weeks ago. The Conservatives banked upon ‘awkward’ Ed Miliband’s unlikeability but thanks to a string of successful interviews, this strategy has backfired. With Labour polling at 34 per cent to the Tory’s 33, David Cameron is counting on disillusioned lefties to look elsewhere for a viable alternative to austerity and crippling public spending cuts.
 
The Green Party know this and they’re going for the jugular.

The Greens are looking to fill the gap left by the Liberal Democrats.[Getty]
The Greens are looking to fill the gap left by the Liberal Democrats.[Getty]


 With membership quadrupling in the last year, the Greens have filled the left gap once occupied by the Liberal Democrats and although they’re only polling at 5 per cent of the public vote that’s up from 0.9 per cent at the last General Election.
 
When I meet Deputy Leader Amelia Womack round the corner from the party’s east London office, she doesn’t have all the answers for the Green Surge but she has a few theories.
 
“I think Caroline Lucas being in parliament has made a real impact,” says Womack.

“People are saying that she’s showing the country what it is to be an MP; that this is how it’s meant to be done. When people are increasingly feeling let down by their politicians, seeing someone who has got a real backbone and who’s fighting for what they believe in despite that fact that they’ve just got the one person from that party really inspires voters about what politics can be when you have the right people in parliament.”
 
I ask if all Green Party candidates follow the Lucas model of politics – the outsider who doesn’t tow the party line to the detriment of their own constituents.
 
“In the Green Party, we don’t have career politicians because no-one really expects to get in,” Womack admits rather candidly.

“So the people who run tend to embrace the core values of what it is to be Green – the environment, social justice and a fairer democracy.”
 
Thirty-year-old Womack works in event planning but has been a prominent member of the party since signing up the day after her graduation from the University of Exeter and in less than ten years has risen to the ranks of Deputy Leader at the right hand of Leader Natalie Bennett.
 
If it feels like a radical idea to have a political party that isn’t overwhelmingly made up of white Oxbridge educated men, it’s because it is.

Womack: 'We don't have career politicians in the Green Party'
Womack: 'We don't have career politicians in the Green Party'


Nine million women didn’t vote in 2010’s General Election, a fact Labour brought to everyone’s attention when Harriet Harman unveiled their pink bus in February in an attempt to engage the women of Britain in modern politics.
 
Like the majority of women over the age of six, Womack found the bus to be overly simplistic but she admits they did have a point.
 
“The pink bus is opening up communications and discussions, which is really positive, but it was done in quite a patronising way.
 
“Because politics has been dominated by white men of a certain age, there are whole groups of society that see it as something that happens over there, to those people and doesn’t necessarily relate to their everyday life.
 
“I’m fed up of being the token woman on a panel of white men. I really wonder what that must feel like for BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) women who look up and see panels of white men and one token white woman."
 
If a pink bus is patronising then, is it reductive to think of issues like childcare, domestic violence and healthcare as ‘women’s issues’?
 
“Those are issues where it’s important to come together as women,” explains Womack.
 
“There are specific issues that affect women more and that’s why it’s important to have these events where you’re discussing them, trying to overcome barriers. It’s more of the stereotyping of what a woman is [that’s the worry] – like a woman is more interested in childcare than business when actually that isn’t true.”
 
One of these issues that overwhelmingly affect women more is the controversial zero hour contract debate that has emerged as one of the hottest buttons in the run up to the election.

Labour's pink bus landed them in hot water back in February
Labour's pink bus landed them in hot water back in February


 “We’re saying no to zero-hour contracts, which is really important,” Womack proudly informs me.
 
“You’re seeing whole groups of society that can’t take maternity leave because those rights that people have fought for are gone – sick leave, holiday pay, pensions and maternity leave. By tackling zero-hour contracts we’re making sure there’s not a generation of women who aren’t able to have children.”
 
Speaking to women in the workplace across all levels of society, the issue of equal pay is yet another that’s becoming more and more important for female voters and yet seems to be getting little attention from the male-led parties.
 
“I was talking to Sian Berry (fellow Green candidate) about every single system that didn’t benefit women. Women tend to earn less yet our haircuts are more expensive. To dry clean a woman’s shirt costs more than a man’s. Even down to transport costs. Most part-time workers are women and if you buy a weekly travel pass but only work part-time you don’t see any savings. You actually end up paying out more.
 
“It’s obvious the system isn’t working. How do we build one that does?”
 
Womack and her party are taking the fight right to Labour’s front door come May 7 when she runs against Deputy Leader Harriet Harman in the Camberwell and Peckham seat she’s held for 33 years.
 
With promising campaigns in Bristol and Norwich for the Greens, I have to ask why Womack has chosen a seemingly unwinnable seat?

Womack will run against Labour Deputy Leader Harriet Harman on May 7 [Rex]
Womack will run against Labour Deputy Leader Harriet Harman on May 7 [Rex]


 “Because there are so many things that typical Labour voters aren’t happy with,” she states emphatically.
 
“The Labour Party are promising austerity but austerity-lite. Their issues around young people continue, namely tuition fees. Politics is affecting the lives of the young British voters in such a negative way. No wonder they’re not inspired by a system that’s been forcing them to take on £40,000 of university debt, with no jobs at the end of it.
 
“People no longer want to validate those actions by putting a cross next to their Labour candidate. They are starting to tune into this fact – if you vote for the least bad option then nobody gets what they want.”
 
According to Womack, the Greens have 12 key seats they’re looking at across the country but unlike the Lib Dems, they’re looking at playing the long game.
 
“I feel like I’m not breaking news here that we’re not going to win the General Election. But we’re looking at 2020 and seeing how we can build,” admits Womack.
 
“I think we’ve got a real opportunity to challenge business as usual politics.”
 
It’s pretty clear that the Greens are not in a position to be a viable alternative to our current lamentable two party reality. When pushed for facts and figures about childcare allowances, Womack turns to her press officer who politely informs me that I’ll be able to find that in the manifesto (out tomorrow) but he’s pretty confident they’ll ‘probably better the other parties’.
 
However, 56,000 members and the real possibility of winning 12 seats are not to be sniffed at. Even though it sounds like something from a sci-fi novel, 2020 really isn’t that far off. Are we ready for a Green and pleasant land?

[The Only Thing Worse Than The Pink Bus Is Nine Million Women Not Voting]