UK's left-wing Greens seek to topple Labour's London strongholds

LONDON, May 4 – In the Labour stronghold of Hackney in east London, human rights lawyer Nadeshda Jayakody is one of many voters switching to the Green Party, a trend among urban progressives that could cost British Prime Minister Keir Starmer dearly in the capital.

As Starmer’s Labour Party adopts tougher policies on issues like immigration in response to the rise of Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist Reform UK party, it risks losing voters like Jayakody, for whom Labour had been a natural home.

“I just think the Greens align better with what I stand for,” said Jayakody, 34, who voted Labour in the 2024 general election.

“Labour is pandering towards the right, towards Reform, rather than trying to lead from the centre or the left.”

Local council elections in London on May 7 form part of a broader set of votes across Britain which could imperil Starmer’s premiership.

Despite leading centre-left Labour to a huge election win in 2024, opinion polls show Starmer’s popularity has plunged since taking office.

Following a string of scandals and a sense that Labour has so far failed to deliver the improvement in living standards that it promised, the party is bracing for big losses, to Reform in its former industrial heartlands and to the Greens in major cities.

GREEN GAIN IN MANCHESTER A WATERSHED MOMENT

As Labour stumbles, the Greens have gathered momentum since Zack Polanski became leader in September and shifted the party to the left.

Moving beyond its traditional environmentalist agenda, he has called for higher taxes on the rich, rent controls and the legalisation of drugs, and the party is polling between 15% to 20% nationally – sometimes ahead of Labour.

The Greens won a stunning victory in a safe Labour parliamentary seat in Greater Manchester in February, casting doubt on Starmer’s insistence that Labour are the only progressive party that can defeat Reform.

“People on the doorstep in Hackney really were following that and really could see that we are an alternative,” said Zoë Garbett, the Green candidate for Hackney mayor.

Garbett added that prospective voters in Hackney, where Labour have been the biggest party on the council since the 1970s, were dissatisfied with Labour for a range of reasons, from local housing issues to their stance on the Gaza war.

Polls suggest close contests in several London boroughs. A YouGov model last month projected the Greens as leading in four London boroughs including Hackney, while a JL Partners model showed them narrowly ahead in Camden – home to Keir Starmer’s own parliamentary seat. Meanwhile Reform could do well in some of the city’s outer boroughs.

Starmer has said his government is delivering on the country’s priorities, including stabilising the public finances, reducing child poverty and cutting hospital waiting lists, at a time of immense global challenges.

The Greens have faced criticism after some of their candidates were accused of antisemitism. Polanski, who is Jewish, has said that one case of antisemitism is one too many but also that the issue should not be conflated with legitimate criticism of Israel.

He was rebuked by London’s police chief last week after he retweeted a post on X that criticised officers for the way they arrested a man after two Jewish people were stabbed in north London.

VOTERS CONFLICTED BETWEEN LABOUR AND GREENS

Despite growing support for the Greens in Hackney, some voters expressed sympathy for Starmer in a district which Labour won by nearly 40 percentage points in 2024.

Mel Bagshaw, 69, a photographer, said that he had previously voted Labour and would do so again, saying that they traditionally protected the most vulnerable in society, adding that the Greens were “slightly too radical for me.”

Sophie Bullock, 39, an operations manager who usually votes Labour, said she was torn as she wanted “some consistency and some stability” in backing Starmer and Labour, but was leaning towards the “refreshing” energy of the Greens.

Green candidate Garbett said that voters felt “really let down by the establishment parties” on a national level.

“I think we’ve seen a real change in politics,” she said, “and I think this election is going to be a real change for London.” REUTERS