Now at 115,000 members and in some polls level with Labour in terms of public support, CHRIS JARVIS looks at the factors behind the rapid rise of the Greens, internal and external

WHEN Labour included proposals in its manifesto to help the Waspi women (Women Against State Pension Increases), spokesperson of the campaign group “We Paid In, You Pay Out” Trudy Baddams said: “At last we were being taken seriously, our voices had been heard, Labour were listening to us, the newspapers were listening to us.” She paused. “Our group finally had hope.”
As the proposals were fleshed out, both Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell talked of “righting an historic wrong.” The party included an online calculator so the women affected could work out what they would be entitled to if Labour was elected.
Although there was a lot of criticism levelled at Labour’s proposals, they stood their ground, certain that the issue of the state pension age for women born in the 1950s was one of fairness — of doing the right thing.