Hold back the Greens by ‘playing them at their own game’, council leader says

A council leader has said that engaging in “hyper local activity” is part of the key to beating the Greens after the party ate into Labour’s vote share in many seats at the general election.

Speaking at a Labour conference hosted by LabourList in partnership with Ecotricity, Brighton & Hove City Council leader Bella Sankey said activists should play the Greens “at their own game” and take part in localised community politics in order to stem the rising green tide.

She added that Brighton, which had a Green council leader between 2020 and 2023, “must be the lesson that must not be repeated elsewhere.”

Other speakers on the panel included Ecotricity founder Dale Vince, who argued that Labour needs to deliver on Green policies to combat scepticism from some activists over the party’s commitment to clean energy.

“We need to see ourselves as that rising green tide”, he said.

READ MORE: The full LabourList events programme, from karaoke to key panel debates

The Green Party of England and Wales won four seats at the general election this summer, gaining three on top of the Brighton Pavilion constituency they first won in 2010.

But the Greens also came second in several seats, many of which are Labour held.

One of Labour’s flagship election pledges was the creation of a publicly owned GB Energy, which is set to invest in clean energy infrastructure upon its creation.

Journalist and Labour activist Paul Mason told the panel: “We’ve got to express more strongly our vision of the future. “Delivering in government isn’t just about having a technocratic agenda. It’s having a vision.”

Follow all of the news and debate at party conference 2024 by LabourList here, the leading dedicated platform for Labour supporters on all things Labour:

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