Leader of the UK Green Party, Jonathon Bartley, told Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour party, that the Greens and Labours should consider a progressive alliance. The invitation was sent out after the Green party’s surge in votes. 

The Green’s success

The local elections that were held on May 6th of this year benefited the UK Greens. The party gained representation on 18 councils, bringing their total tally of council representation to 141. In addition, the Green party made a net gain of 99 council seats in the local elections, taking its national total to a record of 158 seats across England and Wales.

Of the 18 councils that the Greens made strides in, Bristol was by far the greatest feat. The party gained 13 seats and held 11 seats on the Bristol city council. Labour went down from 33 seats in 2019 to 24, making both the Labour and Greens tied at 24 seats. Labour’s Marvin Rees won the Bristol mayoralty for a second term but lost the council majority.

Sandy Hore-Ruthven, the Bristol Green Mayor candidate received 43.5% of the votes. He became the first-ever Green mayoral candidate in the country to come second. In an article on the UK Greens website, Sandy stated :

“This is a landmark result for the Green Party in Bristol – there is no doubt at all now that the Green Party is a major party in this city.”

-SAndy hore-ruthven

Jonathon Bartley, co-leader of the United Kingdom’s Green party, believes that their success in this past election has made the Greens a real competitor for upcoming elections. In an article with the Guardian, he states:

“We’re moving from being the biggest small party to being one of the big parties,” he said. “We’ve been polling ahead of the Lib Dems and we’ve seen in this election that there are no no-go areas for the Greens”

-Jontahon Bartley

Possibility of an alliance

Currently, the only council in which the Greens have a majority is Brighton and Hove, a district in East Sussex, England.

But in the most recent election, the Greens managed to pull votes from areas that were expected to go to both the Conservatives and the Labour party. This is encouraging for the party, as they now know that they could win seats where others could not. 

The Labours group lost 8 councils and 327 councillors in the May election, down from the last election’s 1672 councillors. Moreover, many are concerned that the Labour group will not have enough votes to remain in the top two parties in the near future. 

With the Green Party’s substantial increase in votes, co-leader Jonathon Bartley\proposes that the Greens and Labour group form a progressive alliance. Furthermore, many experts believe that after Labour’s loss of votes in the recent election, an alliance may be the only way to combat the conservatives. 

In an interview with the Guardian, Bartley spoke of their invitation to the Labour Party,  “I’m saying to Keir Starmer: my door is open. You have my number – give me a call.”

In the same interview he explained: “We have been governing with Labour and the Lib Dems in councils; we have reached out to Labour. The ball is in the court of the Labour party – we are always ready to talk,.

For more info on the UK Greens:

Hailey Roop

Hailey is an undergraduate student at McGill University studying Economics and Environment. She is interested in addressing environmental and social issues through community engagement efforts. In her free time, she likes to explore the city of Montreal on foot or by bike!

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