MEP for the South West of England Molly Scott Cato has echoed calls for a transport revolution at the Green Party Autumn Conference in Newport.

Molly, who will contest David Drew's Stroud seat at the next election, believes money allocated for High Speed 2 (HS2), which is half of the 2019 NHS budget, could be put to better use.

Speaking at the International Convention Centre last week, she said: “The £88 billion budget for HS2 would be better spent on free bus travel for all, electrifying existing rail lines and providing new services.”

The planned high-speed railway aims to link many of the UK’s major cities by travelling at a speed twice as quick as the existing high-speed railways.

The conference concluded on Sunday where several key party pledges were also announced.

High on the agenda was the UK’s flying activity. The party discussed increasing the flight tax for frequent flyers. A Department for Transport survey found that the 10% most frequent flyers took more than 50% of all international flights in 2018.

Discussing the topic, Molly said: “We are in a climate emergency, we need to discourage binge flying.

“Flying from London to New York and back generates a comparable level of emissions as heating a home for a year and, because these gases are released at high altitudes, the impact on the atmosphere is considerable.”