(Note – this article was written on June 15th)
After record gains in the latest local elections, the Green Party seems to be gaining momentum in increasing its support. There are optimistic signs pointing to the scenario in which the party might finally hold more than one seat in the upcoming general election, especially by targeting previous Labour voters who aren’t satisfied with Keir Starmer’s leadership.
Historically, former leader of the Greens, Caroline Lucas, has been the party’s only MP while representing Brighton Pavilion. Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, current leaders of the party hope to quadruple their number of MPs to four in July. The targeted seats are Waveney Valley for Ramsay, Bristol Central for Denyer, Brighton Pavilion for Sian Berry, and North Herefordshire for Ellie Chowns. The new strategy for this election is to stand candidates in every seat across England and Wales for the first time, so ‘everyone across the country will have the chance to vote Green’. This means finding 575 candidates in total, which is 103 more than 2019.
The party pledged to introduce a ‘fair tax system’ for the NHS in order to ‘reverse the creeping privatisation’.
Aside from placing environmental concerns front and centre as the Greens are known for doing, there is a stronger emphasis on social policies. The party pledged to introduce a ‘fair tax system’ for the NHS in order to ‘reverse the creeping privatisation’. This includes the proposal of getting the very richest to pay more tax with 1% of tax on assets over £10m and 2% on assets over £1b. Ramsay claims that this will deliver an extra £30bn a year for the healthcare service. On housing, the party promises to create 150k new council homes and end-no fault evictions. Denyer also states from the televised debate that the party will remove the two-child benefit cap to aid bigger families. The party calls for more Greens in parliament so that there will be more accountability for the UK’s climate targets and fossil fuel lobbying.
Of all the constituencies, the growing support for the Greens is most felt in Bristol, known as the ‘Bristol Green Surge’. One of the reasons why the Greens are confident of its support in Bristol is due to the redrawing of constituency boundary where Labour’s sizeable majority under Thangam Debbonaire in Bristol West is to be scrapped. Recent local elections in which every single council ward within the Bristol Central parliamentary constituency elected a Green councillor also demonstrates the party’s popularity. What’s more, the Green Party’s support of rent control in a constituency with higher than average housing prices is not overlooked.
Perhaps the most notable reason for some of the left’s shift of support from Labour to the Greens has to do with Gaza.
Perhaps the most notable reason for some of the left’s shift of support from Labour to the Greens has to do with Gaza. Unlike Labour, the Greens took a pro-ceasefire stance early on during the war in Gaza, including stopping UK arms sales to the Israeli military. Combined with Labour’s perceived shift to the right, many previous Labour voters might find themselves gravitating towards the Greens in the next election.
Yet Labour’s current Bristol West MP points out that Labour benefits from experience. She says choosing between Labour and Green is ‘the difference between an MP who would have to learn the job from scratch and one who’s learned how to do it over nine years.’
While the Green Party has grounds for optimism, it certainly needs to put up a good fight this July.
