Nick Tyrone Nick Tyrone

Green scare: Labour should stop chasing the eco vote

(Getty images)

Should the Labour party be worried about the Greens? Some Labour activists think so. The Greens have just become the third most popular in British politics, if the latest IpsosMORI poll is anything to go on. The party won eight per cent support in the survey, putting them ahead of the Lib Dems. It’s enough to give even the staunchest Starmerite cause for concern. But the reality is that Labour needn’t sound the alarm.

In fact, the very last thing Labour should be worried about at the moment is losing potential voters to the Greens. Why? Because we’ve been here before.

In early 2015, support for the Greens went as high as 11 per cent in some polls. It led to grave worries among denizens of the Labour left that Miliband’s bland ‘centrism’ had led young urban voters to abandon the party for the more solidly leftist Green party.

Labour chasing the Green vote is a road to nowhere

This was the factor that was going to stop Labour winning the upcoming general election, they said – except that analysis turned out to be remarkably incorrect.

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