‘Why I left the Green Party and joined Labour’

With the seemingly endless trickle of announcements from people defecting from Labour to the Green Party, I’ll explain why I have been one, although certainly not the only one, to recently make the journey the other way. 

I joined the Green Party in 1987 as an enthusiastic 20 year-old concerned about the environment, gay rights and animal welfare with a clear left-of-centre (although far from hardline Marxist) view of the world on social and economic issues. I ended up representing the Greens on the London Assembly for 16 years, serving as a local councillor in Lewisham for 12 years and serving as one of the party’s ‘Principal Speakers’ (in the days before they allowed themselves to have leaders) for two years.

I finally resigned from the Greens at the end of 2024. A ludicrously irresponsible intervention from Green MP, Sian Berry, on the topic of puberty blockers, deftly put down by Health Secretary Wes Streeting, underlined to me that this was no longer a party of science and reason and evidence-based policy-making. However, even if I had been on Sian Berry’s side rather than Wes Streeting’s side in that particular debate, I would almost certainly have ended up resigning from the Greens anyway, over a host of other issues:

• The ludicrous policy motions, like ‘abolish landlords’, “pickled into rigid dogma” as Neil Kinnock might say. 
• The influx of activists from the hard-left and all the extremism, the apologia for terrorism, the antisemitism and the downright oddness that this entails. 
• The wacky monetary policies and the incoherent flip-flopping on NATO, which demonstrate that this is a party without either a serious spending plan or a serious commitment to defending Ukraine against Putin. 

‘Labour doesn’t need to become a pale imitation of the Greens and Reform’

Like Nigel Farage at the other end of the spectrum, whom Zack Polanski openly modelled himself on when he launched his leadership bid last May, this is about vibes and soundbites and mining disenchantment for electoral gain rather about any sort of serious plan for government.

It is right that Labour reflects on the failure of its messaging in the recent Gorton and Denton by-election though. Just as Labour needed to be careful not to simply write off voters as racist if they expressed concerns about grooming gangs or extremist Islamist preachers, even though these legitimate concerns were ruthlessly exploited by the likes of Farage and Tommy Robinson, Labour also needs to be much clearer that criticism of the Green Party is not an attack on the legitimate aspirations of Green voters. 

But Labour doesn’t need to become a pale imitation of Zack Polanski and the Greens any more than it needs to become a pale imitation of Nigel Farage and Reform. There are some voters that Labour has lost to both of those parties who will never come back. But if you look beyond the culture-war rhetoric and look at where the British public are at on a whole range of issues it should provide comfort to Labour that many voters can be won back with the will and the vision.

READ MORE: ‘Can Labour turn the green tide back to red?’

‘I’m already feeling far more at home in Labour than my last years in the Green Party’

I do not see any contradiction in bringing about a wholesale renewable energy transformation, standing firm against far-right extremism and racist rhetoric, and making sure billionaires pay their fair share of taxes and contribute properly to society on the one hand; and tackling the scourge of Islamist extremism, safeguarding single sex spaces and protecting ourselves and our allies against despots and tyrants through our mutual defence obligations on the other. These are not ‘Green Party’ issues or ‘Reform’ issues in my mind. They are essential components of a good society.

I’m obviously going to argue for Labour to be more resolute on the green agenda, whether on water companies and sewage, or nature, or climate. I don’t think anyone would expect me not to. But at the same time, in just a couple of days since sending off my membership application, I’m already feeling far more at home in Labour than I was in my last couple of years in the Greens.

The simple reality is that there are many more green-minded people who share my view of the world in the modern-day Labour Party than there are social democratic-minded people who share my view of the world in the modern-day Green Party.

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