Green leaders warn party it must listen to Reform voters’ concerns to tackle inequality | Green party
Current and former leaders of the Green Party have warned that the party must listen to the concerns of Reform voters in the UK to tackle inequality.
The Greens need to understand why voters affected by the cost of living crisis are being drawn to Nigel Farage’s party, Zack Polanski and Caroline Lucas said on Saturday.
Polanski, who previously said he would invite Reform voters to join his party, was speaking at a conference organized by left-wing campaign group Compass in east London.
Latest polls suggest that if a general election is held, 27 per cent of voters would vote for Reform, potentially paving the way for Farage to become the next prime minister.
““I could stand here and spend the rest of the evening talking about why Reformation was bad and I’d feel great,” said Polanski, who was elected leader of the party last year. “But there’s a really important distinction to be made.
“Nigel Farage, Reform MPs, the people who speak on their behalf are very different to the people who are considering voting Reform.
“They are exactly the people we should care about, because when we say people feel left behind, they don’t feel left behind; they have been left behind by decades of austerity and successive governments, by politicians who often talk to them like they’re stupid, if they even talk to them at all.
“Ultimately we need to reach out with this message of inequality and point out that while multimillionaires and billionaires are getting more money than ever before, the problem is not someone running for their lives and traveling on a small boat. The problem is people flying over our heads in a private jet.”
Former MP Lucas, who led the Green Party at various times between 2003 and 2018, was also among the audience at Polanski’s speech.
“To listen [Reform voters] “This is the starting point as many of their concerns are completely legitimate,” he later said.
“We may not agree with the solutions they have reached, but when they have paid the price of 20 years of crisis and received endless unfulfilled promises from other national governments, you cannot be surprised that they are driven by a sense of desperation.
“There’s a sense that if someone else is offering something better, it’s worth a try.”
Lucas added that he was happy the Green party did not “throw the kitchen sink” at the Makerfield by-election, which saw Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham seeking a return to parliament and a bid for the Labor leadership.
Burnham is expected to face a strong challenge from Reform, which won nearly 50% of the vote in the constituency’s eight council areas in the May election.
However, candidate Robert Kenyon has faced widespread criticism for his social media posts. Reform also faces a vote squeeze from Restore Britain, a new far-right party led by former MP Rupert Lowe.
Lucas stopped short of suggesting Greens candidate Sarah Wakefield should withdraw to avoid a similar split of the left-wing vote.
But he said Burnham thought the by-election on June 18 was “hugely important” because of her support for electoral reform and proportional representation, which the Greens have long been working on.
“This is the only way to permanently fix Britain’s democracy,” he said.
