Green Party membership has skyrocketed to 115,000 – a jump of 50,000 members since their recent leadership election. Meanwhile, the latest figures show Labour is losing a member around every ten minutes. In other words, they’ve been dropping 152 members a day. With that direction, it’s no wonder Labour is not releasing updated membership figures.
In the arena: Green V Labour
Further, the Greens are surging beyond their membership. For the first time ever, the Greens are ahead of Labour in a recent Find Out Now poll. The Zack Polanski-led party is on 15.31% and the governing party is on 15.23%.
It’s not surprising the Greens are gaining while Labour collapses. Take the recent party conferences, where the Greens voted to abolish landlords. The motion stated:
The Private Rental Sector has failed, it is a vehicle for wealth extraction, funnelling money from Renters to the Landlord Class. This motion makes it clear Green Party policy is to seek the effective abolition of Private Landlordism.
That’s the no-nonsense approach that Polanski has been exemplifying.
Meanwhile, Labour’s new housing secretary Steve Reed championed social housing in his conference speech, claiming:
we can offer a safe, decent and affordable home for every person, for every family in our country.
This is far from the truth. The government previously clarified that it will deliver 90,000 social homes this parliament (and a further 90,000 if re-elected). But there are 1.3 million households already on the waiting list for social housing. So Reed is taking Labour members for a ride when he says everybody will have a home with this government.
It also means that if Labour build 1.5m homes this parliament (as they pledged to do), only 6% will actually be social housing.
Not just housing
At the Green conference, the party continued its no-bullsh*t approach. The conference voted in favour of designating Israel’s IDF as a terrorist organisation. The Greens note that the Israeli army is an occupying force that has been terrorising Palestinian people for decades.
Meanwhile, Labour has continued to provide diplomatic cover for Israeli politicians as well as greenlighting the sale of arms to the state. That’s despite every major human rights organisation, as well as the UN, declaring that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The Labour conference did back a motion that accepted the UN finding that Israel is conducting a genocide.
But whether it’s domestic or foreign policy, the Greens are vastly out-doing Labour.
Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Bristol Green Party
By James Wright
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