Transformative change for climate more vital than ever - Lorna Slater

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer

Like many people across Edinburgh I was delighted to see the Tories finally leaving office. After 14 years and five Prime Ministers, it was a pleasure to watch the blue dots disappearing from the electoral map.

The scale of Labour’s victory shows the huge desire to close the door on a cruel, incompetent and climate wrecking Tory government.

With such a big parliamentary majority, Keir Starmer, pictured, has the power and the opportunity to deliver real change

He could act to lift millions of people out of poverty, reverse years of Tory cuts and make the investment that is needed to truly revolutionise our infrastructure and face up to the climate crisis. But is he willing to make the changes that are so urgently needed?

Over the course of the campaign, Labour's slogans were all about change, but in reality they promised very little. Most of their explicit commitments seemed to be about the things that they would keep the same – from Tory cuts to Brexit and our broken relationship with Europe.

That sense of caution ran right the way through the Labour manifesto, which was one of the least ambitious in living memory.

They have offered very little for our climate and nothing that will truly tackle the vast inequality that has been allowed to grow so much in our society. Even if they delivered on all of their promises in full it would still fall far short of what is needed.

It doesn’t have to be like this. We live in one of the wealthiest societies in the history of the world. We have more than enough resources to ensure that no child grows up in poverty and that no parents are forced to go hungry in order to provide for their family.

The problem isn’t a lack of money, it is who has that money and how it is used.

Despite the unfair and undemocratic voting system that is used in Westminster elections, our colleagues in England elected four Green MPs, and we saw record votes for Scottish Green candidates across Scotland, including here in Edinburgh, where we got our strongest general election vote to date.

It was a big step forward for our party and sets us up well for the Holyrood elections in 2026 and the local elections in 2027.

We stood on a platform of action to tackle poverty and the climate emergency, with a £28 billion green investment plan funded by taxes on the super rich and the biggest polluters.

These are the kinds of transformative changes that are badly needed and that the Scottish Green will work every day to deliver.