Green parliamentary candidate for Shipley, Kevin Warnes, is hoping to capitalise on the success his party has enjoyed locally in the General Election.

Councillor Warnes, who has represented the Shipley ward for the past six years, has been out campaigning in the constituency and believes his party’s message is encouraging more residents to not only vote Green on local issues but also on May 6.

He also pledged that if elected he would not take the full MP’s salary.

“Shipley residents value their Green councillors, so I hope they will welcome a Green voice at Westminster. I ask everyone to vote Green for a Government that will tackle poverty and build a fair, sustainable future for all,” he said.

“As Shipley’s MP, I would only accept half the salary claimed by other members of Parliament. I also support higher pensions, fairer wages and more help for struggling families. And we need action on energy and carbon to safeguard future generations.”

He added that the Green Party has radical plans for public transport that would help to ease the kind of road congestion that happens in Saltaire every day and that it wanted much more support for shops owned by local people, such as those along Gordon Terrace in Saltaire.

His comments come as the Green Party unveiled its manifesto in Brighton today vowing that “fair is worth fighting for”.

Party leader Caroline Lucas said: “In our manifesto we’ve put the economy and the environment foremost at the very heart and our overall aim is to set out how to make Britain a greener and much fairer society.”

The party is hoping to capitalise on voter dissatisfaction with the main political parties and win its first parliamentary seat next month.

Miss Lucas, who is standing for the top target seat of Brighton Pavilion, said the two main issues the party would focus on tackling were the climate and economic crisis.

“But the good news is that there are ways of tackling both of these things at the same time,” she said.

The party plans to reintroduce the fuel duty escalator, to raise fuel duty by eight per cent per year, and to introduce VAT and fuel duty on aviation, which it said would raise £10 billion by 2013.

They also want to levy eco-taxes on non-renewables or pollutants, and tax plastic bags and unnecessary packaging.

Miss Lucas pledged the Greens would introduce a “living wage” equivalent to 60 per cent of net national average earnings – or £8.10 an hour, compared with the current minimum wage of £5.80.

The party also advocates the creation of an extra one million jobs and training places through a £44 billion package investing in renewables, transport, insulation, housing and waste management.

Protecting public services from privatisation is another priority and the Green Party promises to re-open post offices that have been closed and support local shops, businesses and markets.

On the education system, it wants to reduce class sizes by spending £500 million on more teachers, abolish Sats exams and do away with tuition fees for university students.

On the NHS, the Greens would abolish prescription charges, re-introduce free eye tests and allow people in England and Wales to benefit from the free social care available in Scotland.

Radical tax reforms would ensure there would be a “citizen’s pension” of £170 a week for single people and £300 a week for couples, she said.

Most of the annual £110 billion cost would be covered by abolishing pension credits and ending tax relief on pension contributions. The party said it would introduce a new higher rate of income tax at 50 per cent for incomes above £100,000 and abolish the upper limit for National Insurance contributions.

It would also crack down on tax havens and other methods of tax evasion, while it would reform both inheritance tax and council tax.

Miss Lucas emphasised it was a “costed manifesto based on real redistribution”.

She said: “It is an ambitious set of proposals but the Green Party has never been afraid of being ambitious.”