Who’s afraid of the Green party? Within Labour, the answer varies depending on which member of the shadow cabinet you speak to. Some laugh off the idea that the Greens present an electoral threat from the left, because of the two-party system. As one party veteran puts it: ‘Labour has two opponents. In England, it’s the Tories. In Scotland, it’s the SNP. It’s that simple.’ The prevailing view among many of Keir Starmer’s disciples is that left-wing voters – Green or not – will be so desperate to oust the Tories that they will vote for Labour no matter what.
Concern about a Green threat tends to be code for saying Starmer is not radical or left-wing enough
On the other side of the shadow cabinet table are those who think there is a risk in the Labour party looking Tory-lite. ‘I do worry about the Greens,’ says one shadow minister. ‘There’s a chance that voters go there instead.’
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