The Green Party offers to work with Labour to ditch HS2 and road-building programme

The Green Party today offers to help Labour make cuts - to the road-building programme and to High Speed 2. The party wants extra spending on local transport instead.

Caroline Lucas, the Green MP, speaking to the BBC as her party prepares to unveil its election manifesto, said the Greens would decide whether to support a minority Labour Government by looking at its proposals on a case-by-case basis.

The Green Party's manifesto, which it says is fully costed and funded, includes pledges to extend free local transport to young people and students, at a cost of £4bn, and to increase spending on walking and cycling by £1.8bn a year. Green MPs would also press for motorists to be presumed liable for all injuries to pedestrians and cyclists they collide with, to help reduce casualties to zero.

The Conservative Party is also preparing to launch its manifesto today. It has already pledged a five-year freeze in rail fares. Labour said this was unfunded, and would itself kick two road upgrades into the long-grass to pay for a one-year freeze in fares. It would deliver HS2, but "keep costs down".