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.
29 Responses to “Exclusive: The Greens tried to form a progressive alliance with Labour. Here’s why it didn’t work out”
Al Wiliams
It’s tragic that the Green Party champion a ‘climate emergency’ declaration and yet fail to understand how it’s the fuel for EcoFascism. A Parliamentary ‘Climate Emergency’ declaration is meaningless without being backed by a legal framework. The statement as declared doesn’t prove much does it? What have the Tories done to actually take it seriously? So, you wonder, why did it pass so easily. Well, it allows any government potent powers to address the climate crisis. If Johnson wins the election and him or his successor decides to declare what a ‘climate emergency’ means, they can now define what they want without the requisite oversight. Why have you all ignored this? Many of us have been pointing this to Green Party politicians and Extinction Rebels for over 12 months now. We have all been INGORED. Shame on you. You’re reckless ignorance could well be costly if Labour lose the election. I doubt the Greens will return more than 1 MP now. 2 years ago we were all disappointed with the Green showing, whilst being impressed with what Corbyn had achieved despite the media being out to get him. Now the Greens are against him too. This is the real tragedy.
This is just one reason why the Greens look very out of touch. Their support for Extinction ‘Rebellion’ and it’s fetishisation of arrests and imprisonment is another huge blunder. Until recently |I had a lot of repsect for Jon Bartley. I chatted to him at a Stansted15 action and he came across as knowledgeable on both the politics and activism. However, fast forward to his recent arrest with incoherent Guardian journalist George Monbiot and it seems he they were both just getting arrested for the ‘kudos’ they thought it would bring them. Monbiot stated he would get arrested in that days Guardian column. I’e never seen a more pathetic stage managed attempt at virtue signaling from the pair of them/ Won’t be voting Green Party again. Please take a good look at Rupert Read and his racist agenda too – it’s clearly at odds with the Green leaders position on borders and the hostile environment. Until you can address these issues, I just can’t take you seriously at all. I shall either vote Labour or Plaid Cymru.
Derek Chandler
To say that the Greens are not socialist is disingenuous. Remember that the Green Party were the left-wing national party with good support when Labour had become a right-wing party under Blair and Brown. Many of the current Labour policies – the 4-day week, the Green New Deal, becoming CO2 neutral by 2030 – are all Green Party policies, and have been for many years, before Corbyn started taking control. The Greens may not be as socialist as believing that all property is theft, as some do, but they do believe in nationalisation because that makes systems cheaper, more organised and efficient, plus it makes it much easier to reduce energy consumption and provide free transport to help tackle the climate crisis. The Greens also believe in proper benefits reforms, replacing the current piecewise benefit systems of tax credits, unemployment and disability allowances, housing benefits and universal credit, with a proper integrated system based on a Universal Basic Income given to all regardless of means, paid for by replacing some benefits, cutting some tax reliefs, efficiency savings and increased taxation on the richest incomes and wealth, which will eliminate poverty and insecure precarious work, and free people to study, bring up children and care for others, start new businesses and take lower-paid work, or dip in and out of employment without fear that benefits will lost. Of course this would only be possible with caps on rents (unlike the Tory’s backward illogical cap on benefits without rent controls!) and regulating the housing market. Is this socialist enough for you? The worst thing is that most people don’t know the Green Party’s socialist policies because the media and the First-Past-the-Post electoral system exclude them. Which is why Labour should support Proportional Representation: they’ve stolen many of the Green Party’s policies, so why won’t they take this one?
Eric Walker
I wonder is Tom Saccold, or the person who writes using that name, really a Labour Party member? I doubt it very much.
Ben
I feel very strongly that Labour should accept a deal whereby the Greens stand down in Stroud in exchange for Labour standing down in the Isle of Wight. Greens largest vote share outside of Brighton Pavilion was IoW in 2017; Stroud is a knife-edge marginal between Labour and the Tories where there is a very real danger of Greens splitting the vote and letting the Tories in by the back door.
Labour no doubt argue the exchange is unreasonable as Labour were second in IoW and Greens got less than 1000 votes in Stroud at the last election. This argument misses important considerations. The Greens would conceivably be a more acceptable left-wing party than Labour in IoW – given the Remain Alliance has put Lib Dems out of the picture, the Greens have a good chance of being able to put together a coalition that includes not only left-wing voters, but environmentally-minded and remainer Conservative voters as well. Labour, meanwhile, does not have a plausible path to building on its 2017 vote share.
In Stroud, Greens would be making a huge sacrifice by standing down Molly Scott Cato, who would be an outstanding MP. It is understandable that Greens regard her as having a credible chance of winning the seat given her wealth of experience and Labour’s decline in popularity since the last election. But Greens need to accept that it is still very much a long shot.
Labour, for their part, might regard the Greens as bloody-minded for trying to leverage a seat they have no chance of winning, one that is only significant because the two major parties are so close. But that’s politics: to expect the Greens to stand down for nothing in return is to fail to treat them as a serious political force. And apart from anything else, it is in Labour’s interest to treat the Greens with respect. Showing a willingness to make a deal with the Greens will go a long way toward convincing environmentally-minded voters in marginals up and down the country that Labour can be trusted on this issue – voters who might otherwise vote Green, or who might simply stay at home.
And if Labour really are serious about a Green New Deal, then the risk to them of a Green victory on the IoW is minimal: the Green Party can be expected to vote with Corbyn’s Labour on most issues, as long as Labour can be trusted to make good on their promises with respect to climate change.
Jimmy W
Labour socialism and Green socialism are like chalk and cheese. If people don’t recognise the difference they should read more about permaculture.