Election: The Green Party is Recycling its Voters

The Green Party of vegetarian and biodegradable idealism is taking a stand against British politics with a tough-minded strategic campaign to cage Theresa May’s flock of free-range Tories.

As a smaller party unlikely to gain seats this general election it has more chance of achieving its goals by helping other Left-wing parties opposing the Conservatives. Campaigning where there are few Green supporters is likely to splinter the anti-Tory vote at the expense of Labour and the Lib Dems, which have much greater chances of winning seats under the UK’s “first past the post” election system.

Many other Left-wingers criticise Green voters for “throwing away” their votes on a party that has no hope of gaining a majority and could only build a decent presence in parliament if the UK adopted a European-style proportional representation system. In November 2016 the Greens decided not to campaign in the Richmond Park by-election, allowing Liberal Democrat Sarah Olney to unseat Brexiteer Zac Goldsmith. It was a win-win arrangement, because in return the Lib Dems agreed not to oppose the Greens’ one MP Caroline Lucas in her seat of Brighton Pavilion at the next general election

Divided Loyalties

According to the pollster YouGov, Green supporters in London at the last general election were younger than average voters, and lived largely in the hip north-east of inner London, from Holborn to Walthamstow. It is little wonder that the Greens are strong in areas like Hackney Central, where the average voter is five years younger than in more Lib Dem-oriented areas to the west like Marylebone High Street

The recent attention on environmental issues such as London’s poor air quality will almost certainly help the Greens but Brexit is the main game in the most “single-issue” election for decades. In a city where 60% of people voted against Brexit, Labour supporters frustrated by their party’s own half-hearted performance on that issue may well look to either the Greens or the Lib Dems, the only national parties that firmly opposed Brexit.

According to Green Party policy the party now “accepts the result of the referendum, but we reject the extreme Brexit pursued by our Government. We have a different vision for Britain’s future.”

Tactical Voting

Lucas, the party’s stand-out performer and an MP since 2010, is pushing for “progressive” parties to block the Conservatives through local agreements. In London the Greens are stepping aside to try to shore up marginal Labour MPs facing strong Tory threats in four seats where the Greens polled between 2% and 3.7% in 2015 – Ealing Central & Acton, Brentford & Isleworth, Ilford North and Eltham.

In Ealing Central & Acton the Greens came fifth in 2015 with 3.6% of the vote while Labour had 43.2% to the Conservative’s 42.7%. UKIP’s 3.8% support is expected to swing heavily to the Conservatives, leaving Labour MP Rupa Huq desperate to pick up “tactical” defections from the Greens and the Lib Dems, who drew 6.1% in 2015.

Green strategists say this approach will help the anti-Brexit cause and free up campaign funds and volunteers to fight for more promising seats.

Strong Green Areas

Trendy Hackney South & Shoreditch is a strong Green constituency with 11.6% of the vote in 2015. Candidate and feminist writer Rebecca Johnson (left) is a nuclear disarmament campaigner who has lived in the area for 27 years.

Johnson recalls that people warned her against moving to Dalston. “We have seen a lot changes,” she says. “Of course some were for the better. It’s safer now, but gentrification has also seen new flats, such as opposite the Peace Mural, go up, the prices of which are way beyond the means of most people in Hackney. I’m standing in Hackney South & Shoreditch because I want Hackney to be a place that is welcoming, open and affordable for everybody, from those who have lived here all their lives to those coming into the borough with new industries and ideas.”

In the safe Labour seat of Ealing Southall the Greens took advantage of the collapse of Lib Dem support in 2015 to climb into third place. Green candidate Peter Ward is a barrister specialising in anti-discrimination law and a property developer who doesn’t fit the hippy stereotype.

Election Broadcast

The party recently launched a two-and-a-half minute election broadcast in which a retro family is depicted plotting political tactics in a board game that highlights Jeremy Corbyn’s reshuffle of his Cabinet in favour of ministers who support his own beliefs and the Conservative parents celebrate advertising a lie on the side of a bus.

Exactly 20 seconds before the end the teenage son pauses the scene with a television remote and says: “It’s time to change the game. A vote for the Green Party on June 8 is a vote for a caring and confident Britain that’s fairer for all. Together we can change the game.”

“Together” could be the key word in this campaign for London’s Greens, as the common cause of opposing a hard Brexit produces the party’s greatest ever effort to turn its guns on the Tories rather than more like-minded parties.

by Stewart Vickers @VickHellfire

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