Last week, when Home Office Minister Mike Tapp fired off his crass “deport, deport, deport” tweet, he wasn’t trying to fix a broken system, he was talking directly to voters Labour have lost to Reform.

He thought he was being tough. And yes, I’m sure Labour strategists smirked. But millions of people across this country weren’t amused. They were horrified. Because this is not leadership. It is cruelty. Cheap, dangerous, divisive cruelty aimed at the people with the least power.

And when I called it out, Tapp threw more playground insults around and called me a communist. That’s McCarthyism. That bleak, paranoid era when smearing people replaced making arguments. That’s where Labour is now.

And of course, all of this bile comes as Westminster prepares for next week’s Budget. Another opportunity for Labour, Reform, and the Conservatives to talk about how they are standing up for ordinary people all while “asking” them to pay more and allowing the very wealthiest to get richer and richer. It’s grotesque.

I obviously disagree with them, but I get why so many people say they’re considering Reform. They can see a truth: the political establishment, of which Reform is part, has been ripping them off for years. Bills through the roof. Wages that don’t stretch. Young people locked out of housing. And into this frustration steps the far right, pointing the finger at migrants and asylum seekers. And instead of confronting that lie head-on, Labour has chosen to echo it.

This week, the Labour government decided, deliberately, to outbid Reform on cruelty. This is morally repugnant and complete political cowardice.

I speak regularly with Labour members. I know how many of them are horrified by their own party’s direction of late. But let’s be honest: out of more than 400 Labour MPs, barely 20 are standing up against these grotesque asylum proposals. Twenty. That’s not courage, that’s capitulation.

Those Labour MPs who are silent should be ashamed. Truly ashamed. The suggestion of confiscating jewellery, to drag children into detention centres, this is indecent, immoral, and indefensible.

And let me say this clearly: we will challenge every single Labour MP who.goes along with this. It’s not enough to just say you regret it or you’re sad about it. Voters still have a moral compass, even if Labour have smashed theirs to pieces.

Labour has lost its soul. Instead of challenging billionaire power, they are embracing a fantasy. A Reform-shaped fantasy that migrants are the reason people are struggling, rather than tax-dodging billionaires, rent-seeking corporations, and a political elite too timid to touch concentrated wealth.

The Green Party is the only party willing to face this truth: the 1% must pay their fair share. Wealth taxes are not radical, they’re popular. Three-quarters of Reform voters support them. The only people who don’t are the politicians who spend their careers fundraising from the ultra-rich.

A Green Budget would flip this broken system on its head. Cut bills. Tax billionaires. It’s that simple. Our plan would raise over £30 billion through taxing wealth fairly. We would put a 1% levy on fortunes over £10 million, rising to 2% over £1 billion. We would say that unearned wealth should be taxed the same as earned income. And we would slash energy bills by hundreds of pounds for households across the country.

This is how you ease a cost-of-living crisis. You don’t cut bills and give people pay rises by scapegoating refugees.

And, of course, we would scrap the cruel two-child benefit cap. This is a policy Labour has disgracefully chosen to keep for 18 months now in government – even as it drives hundreds of thousands of children into poverty. My parliamentary colleagues have consistently called in the Commons for it to be scrapped.

Labour is at a fork in the road. It can honour its tradition of fairness, decency, and compassion, or it can keep chasing Nigel Farage and Donald Trump into the gutter of division and fear.

The Green Party knows exactly which path we’re taking. We are standing for hope, dignity, and real change. And that’s why we’re rising in the polls, with some showing us above Labour now. If Labour can’t stand up for the many then we’re here to replace Labour as the true voice of the 99% and to make hope normal again.

Zack Polanski is leader of the Green Party