Even ex-Reform voters are considering backing the Green Party, its newest MP says

TThe newest MP has insisted the eco-populist movement has something to offer those who once supported Nigel Farage, noting that the Green Party is starting to attract votes from people who previously supported Reform UK.

Hannah Spencer, who won by-elections in Gorton and Denton earlier this year, said: Independent The Greens “are now the option for people who are fed up with Labour, who are worried about Reform, or who have actually tried Reform.”

The 34-year-old claims public confidence in Reform UK has eroded as the rebel party received more than 4 million votes in the 2024 general election, and that the Green Party, whose membership has risen to 225,000 since Zack Polanski took the leadership, represents a viable alternative to disgruntled voters.

His conclusions are supported by election expert Lord Hayward. Independent He saw large numbers of voters switching from Reform to the Greens as a result of growing “disappointment with politics”.

Miss Spencer said Independent: “The Reformation, in a really sophisticated way, targeted a lot of jaded and tired people and promised them things they could never deliver on. And now people are realizing: ‘Wait a minute, what the Reformation sold us was complete nonsense.’

“So now they’re looking at another opportunity to create change in this country, and that’s the Greens.”

Asked whether the Greens thought they could win votes from Reform UK, Ms Spencer said: “Yes, 100 per cent… A lot of my friends and colleagues and people who are really close to me in my life openly support Reform.

“I’ve noticed over the last 12 months that they’ve been asking me questions. Anything they thought about reform has evaporated.

“The people I know who support Reformation, I’m never there to convince anyone or change their mind, we just have really good conversations and now they come and see what we have to offer.”

He added: “People really trusted the Reformation. People thought they were challenging the establishment and now they’ve learned they’re the establishment. So they look at us and decide it’s actually us they’re going to vote for.”

This happened despite the two parties having very different political positions, with the Greens wanting to implement a more “humane” approach to immigration and ultimately seeing a “world without borders”, and Reform England proposing mass deportations to crack down on the issue.

Tory MP and pollster Lord Hayward added there was “no doubt” some voters would consider switching from Reform to the Greens.

“Anecdotally, I hear stories of people switching from one to the other. And that makes sense, because there are a lot of people who get angry,” he said.

“They are actually fed up with politicians. If you go back two or four years ago, the ‘fed up party’ was the Liberal Democrats. Then they switched to the Reform Party. But now they have another option, which is the Green Party.”

He added: “There’s a general frustration with politics. So people are trying to share that frustration with different people. And the Greens are the flavor of the month at the moment.”

Lord Hayward was referring to the Kent County Council by-election earlier this month, which saw the Greens switch the seat from Reform after the incumbent councilor was jailed.

“This was a very safe Reform seat and a clear majority went to the Greens. My expectation is that part of this Greens surge is people switching straight from Reform,” the pollster said.

This came at a time when Reform UK was experiencing a significant decline in popularity; New polls this week showed the party’s support had fallen by five points.

The More Commons poll, published on Wednesday, shows Nigel Farage’s party on 25 per cent of the vote, while the Conservative Party is up three points to move closer to Reform on 22 per cent.

The eight-point swing left Mr Farage’s party with its lowest share in the More in Common poll since April last year.

Speaking of the Greens’ victory in Gorton and Denton, where they overturned Labor’s majority and captured the safe seat, Ms Spencer said her party won because they offered voters a “political reset” and prioritized hope over division to “push politics in a different and better direction”.

“For a lot of people, it was a chance to do something completely different,” he said.

Ms Spencer claims the moment Reform UK realized it had lost and won the by-election was when the party’s “language changed from describing people as Muslims to calling people Islamists” during political interviews throughout the night.

He added: “I knew that Reformation knew what they had lost because of the carefully planned shift in controlling and changing the narrative. And I know at this point that Reformation knew what they had lost.”

Election observer group in the hours after the polls closed in the by-election Democracy Volunteers said they were witnessing “alarmingly high levels” of family voting; This is an illegal practice that involves a person entering a voting booth with another person or otherwise manipulating the vote.

Mr Farage claimed the election result was “a victory for sectarian voting and fraud” after his candidate Matt Goodwin came second behind Ms Spencer.

But the Green MP took aim at the claims, which were later denied by police, saying they were “really dangerous”.

“When something doesn’t go the way someone wants, there’s always someone to blame for something,” he said.

“It was really disappointing because I was going in and out of different polling stations throughout the day, just saying hello to the poll workers and asking if everything was okay. And not once did anyone ask me anything.”

“Not once did this group meet with anyone to do something about this. I welcome any kind of check or investigation into how our democracy is being run. But I felt in my gut that this was really unfair.”

He added: “It’s really sad because this is yet another attack on a group of people who are literally trying to live a safe and peaceful life.”

A Reform UK spokesperson said: “There is no reform of the government, so we haven’t even begun to implement policies that put the British people first. If Hannah wants to claim that our voters are flocking to the open borders, drug-legalising, tax-raising Greens, she’s welcome.”