Labour are shameless in accepting such offers of cooperation while refusing to reciprocate, Green peer Jenny Jones writes.
In 2017, the Greens stood down in 31 seats to allow Labour a free run in a make or break election. So why has this generosity disappeared – and why are the Greens talking to the Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru about electoral deals, instead of the Labour Party?
Just two years ago, there were hundreds of people around the country actively campaigning for parliamentary candidates they saw as both socialist and green.
This time though, we tried, and we are still open to trying again – but sadly we are not getting a positive response from Labour. Greens got absolutely nothing back for our sacrifice in 2017. No recognition from Labour. No promise of fair vote (PR) elections.
The impact on us was that a lot of Green activists put their efforts into stopping a Conservative win and the Green Party vote went down as a result.
Labour members had been threatened with expulsion for supporting the Greens on social media – and the Labour leadership ignored all those activists who wanted to see reds and greens working more closely together. The goodwill felt towards Labour within the Green Party has suffered, because it was clear that Labour were as tribal as ever, even when we Greens are trying to stop yet another Tory government.
Moving closer
At the same time, when it comes to policy Labour and the Greens have moved closer over the last few years. The 2017 Labour manifesto adopted whole chunks of Green Party policies – hurray! The recent Labour conference decision to go for zero emissions by 2030 is a breakthrough moment, although the detailed plans for achieving this fall far short of what is needed.
There are also positive signs of co-operation bringing success. When Green Party councillors started the ball rolling at local authority level by declaring a climate emergency, the other parties often responded positively (though not all Labour councils were initially keen).
Caroline Lucas MP and I brought up declaring a climate emergency in both Houses of Parliament – and it got pushed through when Corbyn backed the idea. We have also beaten the frackers with Labour/SNP opposition to the industry, combined with leading Greens risking arrest to stand (or sit) alongside local campaigners. Extinction Rebellion has raised public awareness across the political spectrum, while MPs like Caroline Lucas and Labour’s Clive Lewis MP have joined together in promoting the Green New Deal via a Bill to Parliament.
Greens are good at co-operating with others because we recognise that it is the best way of getting things done. When Ken Livingstone made me his Deputy Mayor and then his green transport advisor, I was happy to be working alongside a Labour Mayor to make London a pioneering City that promoted congestion charging, the low emission zone and traffic reduction. Of course, none of it went far enough, and the next steps were cut short by the arrival of Boris Johnson as Mayor, but I could imagine a similar red/green government at national level.
Fair representation now
However, this positive experience in London required a proportional system of London elections, which has enabled Greens to be elected to the London Assembly for the last two decades.
In 2017, Labour had the chance to learn lessons about working with others and to help modernise our democracy, but instead it has become isolated as the only social democratic party in Europe to support First Past the Post. It remains wedded to an outdated two-party system that is no longer fit for purpose – and could allow a divisive, right-wing Conservative government to be elected on a minority of the vote share.
The current leftwing refrain of the Greens splitting the vote is only true because it is a First Past the Post electoral system that the Labour Party supports for general elections. If Labour supported PR when in government, more Greens would get elected and we would naturally develop a more European culture of cooperative politics.
Over the last decade, Greens have been part of national governments in numerous countries – and we would have had Green Party Ministers in this country as well if it wasn’t for our unfair way of counting the votes.
Free run
There are seats where local Greens have stepped aside to allow other parties a free run, and in some seats like the Isle of Wight, the Lib Dems have returned the favour. But Labour are shameless in accepting such offers of cooperation while refusing to reciprocate.
Greens in Calder Valley have stood aside in this election. They have every right to be generous – but I hope they have judged the situation carefully. Personally, I couldn’t ask anyone to support any of the 119 Labour MPs who voted last year to expand Heathrow airport, the single most polluting project in the country.
This is a Climate Election and preventing the death, barbarism and suffering that will come with the collapse of civilisation, through environmental degradation, is my number one priority.
We desperately need more Green voices in Parliament to ensure that the climate emergency is kept at the front of everyone’s minds, so that the Labour Party and others don’t keep supporting road building, fossil fuel subsidies, incinerators and airport expansion.
Greens will put forward all the positive solutions that will enable us to live happier lives that work with nature, not against it.
Baroness Jenny Jones is a Green Party peer.
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29 Responses to “Exclusive: The Greens tried to form a progressive alliance with Labour. Here’s why it didn’t work out”
John Tilley
I am now 67 years old and all my life ( much of which has been devoted to politics – the politics of an ordinary party member and activist not somebody famous, not somebody im Parliament or getting a salary for ‘doing politics, not someone with a University degree ) …
all my life I have been old by people like Tom Sacold that my opinions and my contribution to my community should be despised.
I am written off by Tom Sacold as a “snob” as “middle-class” and “not a proper socialist”
I plead guilty to the last of those three – I am not any kind of socialist.
But I am guessing that I probably tick more boxes in the definition of working class than anything Mr Sacold can manage.
Mr Sacold (if that is his real name – if he is indeed a real person and not one of those internet trolls whose idea of politics is to insult people he has never met and is unlikely to meet.) if he is a ‘Proper Socialist’ has just reminded me why Socialists amd the Holier than thou, Leftier than thou Brigade in The Labour Party are auch a bunch of losers.
No wonder the Bloody Tories win so many elections !
With friends like Tom Sacold and his Exclusive Brethren approach to politics The Labour Party will just carry on being losers or it will just turn up toes and die.
After a hundred and something years of failing to transform society – what exactly is the point of The Labour Party ?
If Jeremy Corbyn were to become Prime Minister with a Labour Party majority he would go off to Buckingham Palace, kiss the Queen’s hands, bow amd scrape, watch her “open Parliament” in her gold coach and nothing will really change – will it?
Just like nothing really changed much with any Labour majority government in my lifetime.
FPTP elections will carry on, Trident will carry on (because Jeremy wants to employ submarine makers), world poverty will carry on because ‘Corbynism in one country’ is what The Labour Party wants and the rest of the world’s population can go hang, and Brexit will carry on because Jeremy wants a Labour Brexit, and The Climate Emergency will not be dealt with because Jeremy wants to reopen the coal mines and continxue with muclear dinosaurs like Hinkley Point etc etc etc
steve
Not seeing how the LibDems net zero emissions by 2045 target can be reconciled to the Green position.
The Greens should stick to their principles instead of surrendering all credibility by doing a deal with Tory-supporting, LibDems.
LaborShouldLoveGreens
Corbyn’s a great guy, and has pulled the Labor party away from its rightward drift in the Tony Blair years, but he needs to show some love to the Greens. I get that he’s trying to rebrand and rebuild Labor, and is fighting massive levels of internal fighting from the Blair wing of the party, and is trying to build Labor into something big which can stand and compete on its own two feet….but alliances – especially class alliances – are crucial for a labor movement. Okay, Corbyn doesn’t want to step aside and let Greens gobble up votes, and doesn’t want to name drop them for similar reasons. Understandable. But I hope behind closed doors he is dropping them some love and support. And I hope in the future they can build alliances which meaningfully assist and empower the Greens. They are a brother party.
Michael
My experience in the last election was of quite the reverse, where Greens were actively hostile towards Labour when I really wanted our energies to be focussed on our common enemies and goals. A direct appeal to Caroline Lucas was met with some positive acknowledgement but I had Green campaingers actively lying to me about Labour on my doorstep. I am a Labour supporter who votes Green in my area, but I will not do so this election as a direct result of this behaviour.
John Milne
That is a shocking comment from Tom Sacold. Many of us had hoped that such name-calling would not be a feature of this election. Forlorn hope I know.