The results of this year’s General Election revealed historic wins and monumental losses for parties across the political spectrum, including major celebrations for the Green Party. So, could we be looking at a greener future with the Greens relatively soon?
Mission Impossible?
Ahead of the election, the Green Party shared their mission of electing four members of Parliament in four specific areas. It was a number many thought they could not reach — after all, voters elected just one MP in 2019. Their target was certainly ambitious, and perhaps the fact that two of the four constituencies (Brighton Pavilion and Bristol Central) were labelled and focused on as ‘battleground’ seats may suggest the Greens thought so too. But they did it. One of their most impressive gains was in Bristol Central where Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer was elected with 56.6 per cent of the vote and over 10,000 votes ahead of 2nd place Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire who was the constituency’s former MP on a large majority and a member of the Shadow Cabinet.
Not only did the Greens successfully elect four MPs this year, as they said they would, but they did so with impressive majorities.
A record 1,938,347 people voted for the Green party on July 4. This figure may have been even higher without the millions who engaged in tactical voting to ‘stop the Tories.’ YouGov reports that those lending their vote to other parties ‘are most likely to be Greens.’
Is the Future Green?
Based on some of the current issues in the UK, the future of the Green Party may be full of even more victories.
Despite winning a landslide victory, the Labour Party received fewer votes this year than in the 2017 and 2019 General elections, under then-leader Jeremy Corbyn. This has promoted some to use the latest election as evidence of the UK’s broken voting system and to argue that Labour didn’t exactly win but rather that the Conservatives lost — as suggested by The Economist.
These results and the disengagement and distrust in mainstream politics justify and explain the increased support for smaller parties like the Greens.
The longer the UK goes without radical and urgent action taken to stop climate change, the more anxious all of us will feel about the future. Experts from Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth teamed up ahead of the election to rank the main political parties by their green policies. Achieving the highest score was the Green Party with 39/40, followed by the Liberal Democrats with 31.5/40, then Labour with 20.5/40, and lastly the Conservative Party with just 5/40.
In theory, Labour’s climate policies, such as their commitment to clean energy by 2030 and promising to ‘switch on Great British Energy,’ are a step in the right direction. But with their voter-winning £28 billion climate pledge scrapped, are they still offering enough to deal with the climate crisis?
Climate change is a growing anxiety for many and an escalating problem for all. With their bold climate policies, voters may be pushed into the arms of the Greens to deal with the effects of a changing environment — one that is becoming less hospitable to human life.
An area of high concern for the electorate centres on oil and gas licenses. In their manifesto, Labour confirmed that they will not issue new licenses to explore new fields. However, despite this, the party intends to ‘honour’ the highly controversial Rosebank project. The Green Party on the other hand are clear that as part of their adherence to phasing out fossil fuels, they will cancel the license for Rosebank as well as stop all new fossil fuel extraction projects in the UK.
Young people could easily become an additional catalyst of the Green vote. Our Generation Our Vote who hold mass elections for pupils aged under 18 published its latest results, with Labour gaining 31.7 per cent of the vote, closely followed by the Greens with 29.4 per cent of the vote share. There is also a growing movement called Green New Deal Rising led by young people who are demanding a Green New Deal and who, ahead of the election, supported a full slate of candidates up and down the country, including the four new Green MPs. The people-powered grassroots movement, much like the structure of the Green party, provided vital support that undoubtedly made a difference in the polls. Should Labour’s popular policy to lower the voting age to 16 for all UK elections come to fruition, it will certainly increase the likelihood of votes going to the Green Party in the future.
Knowing Where They Stand
The increase in support for the Greens may not just be for the sake of their ‘green policies.’ Too often, major political parties provide vague answers to questions by neither affirming nor denying their stance. The Greens, however, have always been clear about where they stand on major issues. From the Israel-Hamas war to Brexit to trans rights, the Green Party lacks ambiguity. In the current climate of an all-time low of trust in UK politics, this can surely only be welcomed.
Interestingly, long-standing members and supporters of Labour, including left-wing journalist Owen Jones, have admitted to feeling let down by the Party under Starmer’s leadership following their decision to call for a ceasefire only after months of conflict between Israel and Hamas and with tens of thousands of Palestinians dead. From their stance on Palestine to their policies on taxing the multi-millionaires and billionaires to fund our NHS, many have publicly come out to support the Greens for their political straight talk.
There are no obvious reasons to prevent the Greens from growing as a party in Parliament, but there are some barriers. Size and money are one. Our skewed voting system is another. A lack of media spotlight on Green Party issues is certainly a further obstacle to gaining wider recognition.
Still, I’d like to believe that the Greens will only keep growing in popularity, votes and seats. A green government in five years? Unlikely. But a coalition with the Liberal Democrats? Feasible.
A proper future for the Green Party in British politics will take a lot of challenging work — many people and practicalities will stand in their way. But as they have shown, with a positive mindset and dedicated volunteers they can achieve anything.
DISCLAIMER: The articles on our website are not endorsed by, or the opinions of Shout Out UK (SOUK), but exclusively the views of the author.
Related Posts
