Labour members need to “get over” their “squeamishness” about attacking the Green Party, Bella Sankey, the leader of Brighton and Hove Council, has urged, warning that the party is a “massive threat” to Labour’s future electoral success.
Speaking at the LabourList party conference event ‘Turning the rising Green tide’, in partnership with Hold Fast Labour, Cllr Bella Sankey argued the party must fight back against the Green Party’s “plastic progressives” who campaign on “completely misleading information and outright lies.”
Thangam Debbonaire, a Labour peer who ran against the Green Party in Bristol Central, echoed Sankey. “They have a projected image of being a fluffy, nice, cuddly party. It is not true,” she warned, adding: “I want you to remember that the Greens are not your friends.”
Pollster Scarlett Maguire argued that making bolder economic decisions would enable Labour to take on both the Green Party and Reform UK. She said: “When you look at who’s voting Green, they’re not just the mirror image to Reform, they look very similar to them. They’re more likely to feel hard up, they’re more likely to feel negative. They’re more likely to feel the country is broken and needs radical action.
“Only nine percent of Green voters say the environment is their number one issue. So there’s often a complete misunderstanding about that vote, and it’s a vote that is discontented and increasingly angry.”
On winning back Reform voters, she said: “You’re not going to win them back by mimicking some of the rhetoric on migration, especially if you don’t deliver on it.”
John McTernan, a former Labour adviser under Tony Blair, argued the party faced a deeper identity crisis. “I kind of think the Labour government’s problem at its heart is it can’t answer the question, who are you?” he said.
McTernan also criticised “the joy with which the left of our party are kicked around to send a signal to the country”, and noted widespread discomfort amongst the membership with the government’s position on issues like Gaza and welfare cuts.
Debbonaire added that Labour had a chance of winning back “curious” Green and Reform voters on local issues: “Can you get an NHS appointment? Can your mum see the doctor when she wants to? Are there any potholes left? These are things that I actually think we have some chance of winning on.”
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