What we learnt from Natalie Bennett at the first Leaders Live debate

Green party leader Natalie Bennett last night fielded questions from leading video bloggers in the first of a series of five Leaders Live debates, giving young people the opportunity to question the nation’s political leaders.

As well as 15 audience members in the studio, thousands of others watched via a livestream. This is what she said:

How would the Greens deal with health issues which are less obvious, such as mental health?

Ms Bennett said that mental health issues should be treated as seriously as physical illness and the Green manifesto would focus on this. People should not be told they have to wait six months for treatment, she argued, saying that services are being slashed away. In terms of human suffering, this is “deeply inhumane”.

How would the Greens cover the cost of university education?

Ms Bennett suggested big businesses could help fund university education, saying: “If you think about Amazon… last year they paid 0.01 per cent of their turnover in tax. That means they’re a parasite, they’re sucking profits out of our society and not paying back.

“If you want to do business in Britain, you [should] have to say every other country where you do business, how many staff you have there and what your turnover is.”

Would the Green create a more representative government?

This question gets at the problem of our whole political system, Ms Bennett said. She argued it was time to throw out old conventions and start again, saying “It’s too late to tinker” with the system. The Greens are calling for a People’s Constitutional Convention drawn from across the country to decide what parliament looks like.

What can be done by the Greens to get people to care about the environment?

The Greens don’t care too much about individual behaviour, said Ms Bennett – instead the changes need to be societal and economic. For example, she said, in many places public transport is too expensive and ineffective.

The series, hosted by Bite the Ballot with ITV and supported by i, will see David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband subject to questioning under the same format, while Nigel Farage, will be the next to face the panel on Tuesday.

Bite the Ballot was founded three weeks before the 2010 general election and now aims to “drive the biggest turnout of informed, educated and engaged young voters at the 2015 general election”.

The event, designed to engage a younger audience, saw its hashtag #LeadersLive trending on Twitter in the UK last night.

More: How the Green Party says it would run the country