Almost two years ago, as editor of The Cheese Grater, I wrote a leader article days before the 2024 general election urging readers not to blindly support a complacent Labour Party that merely positioned itself as the least worst option.
I argued at the time that Sir Keir Starmer, a “spineless opportunist” whose true beliefs were not known even to himself, was holding the nation “electoral hostage” knowing our worst fear was waking up to another five years of Conservative rule.
In the weeks and months that followed, that prediction has become increasingly apparent. In March, the first Labour prime minister since 2010 was branded as “passive” by some of his closest aides, who told The Sunday Times that Starmer appeared to have “no opinion at all” on some of the nation’s most pressing issues.
One politician close to the prime minister was even quoted as saying: “He has no fixed views on anything. There’s no clarity because there’s no belief. There’s no belief because there’s no understanding. There’s no understanding because there’s no curiosity.”
Indeed, for all the talk of change at the last general election, Sir Keir has thus far failed to make a positive case for his own Labour Government, rather focusing obsessively on the negative case against whoever was polling higher that week.
Yet poll after poll now suggests Labour’s support has evaporated, squeezed on the left by the Greens and by Reform on the right. One would be hard-pressed to find a self-declared Labour supporter, let alone a Starmerite anywhere in Britain today.
It therefore comes as a shock to no one that Labour’s offering at the local elections this May 7 falls back on their 2024 pitch of being the least worst option.
In my own Westminster ward, a Labour councillor sent me an email saying: “A vote for any other party risks letting the Conservatives back in again in your ward or enabling them to become the largest party on the Council, helping them regain power.”
Unfortunately, this argument is now a much tougher pill to swallow after much of Labour’s tenure had been spent trying to appease Reform defectors with an explicitly rightwing policy agenda on immigration and welfare – alienating its support base and convincing few others.
I argue the culprit of the impending Labour “bloodbath” is largely down to Labour’s failure to set out a positive vision of the country it currently governs. Rather, Sir Keir has repeatedly told a story of Britain broken by the people who came before him, telling us that “things will get worse before they get better,” as if to prepare himself for failure.
The former director of public prosecutions may think he was being honest with the public, but when things do indeed get worse, as when the IMF projected Britain to be the hardest hit of the G7 economies by the Iran war, it only serves to confirm people’s suspicion that Labour is no different to the Tories, and that nothing will ever change.
And the fact that Downing Street appears to be in constant internal turmoil should come as no surprise either. As Gabriel Pogrund and (ex Grater) Patrick Maguire wrote for The Sunday Times, “It increasingly seemed the prime minister was the last person taking decisions of consequence,” while aides likened his premiership to a driverless DLR train, “driven to his destination by strangers who held him in contempt.”
No vision, no leadership, no initiative. In such a narrative vacuum, other ideas inevitably take shape. Reform UK, with the backing of the rightwing press, took inspiration from the fascist playbook and blamed the nation’s ills on the so-called “benefits street” and “small boat” migrants. Its rise is Sir Keir’s own making.
This is why I am voting Green in this election, and I urge readers to do so as well. The story it tells of Britain is hopeful, and it identifies rampant economic inequality as the greatest vice of our society. Its leader Zack Polanski speaks and acts with a sense of conviction not found in the prime minister. At a time when hope feels a distant commodity, the Greens are a breath of fresh air.
Cynics will say that a vote for Green is a wasted vote, tantamount to handing Reform a victory on a silver plate. But isn't that exactly the kind of fear-mongering tactics that have for decades stopped us from demanding more with our vote? Indeed, why would those in charge be compelled to change the status quo if we keep choosing it?
It's also worth remembering that, at least in England, these elections are relatively low stakes. Even if, say, Labour were to lose control of every single council, it would still wield a supermajority of over 400 MPs in the House of Commons, with the next general election not expected until 2029. This means there is still time to change course – but only if given the impetus to do so.
Of course, one need not seriously entertain the idea of a Green Government in order to vote Green. As I said two years ago, and I say again now, the point of a protest vote is not to win but to send a message. And the message is this: Britain is a tolerant nation of good-natured people who reject Starmer’s poor emulation of Reform’s divisive and unpatriotic politics – and it matters not how many Union Jacks he sleeps with at night.
On 7 May, therefore, voters have a chance to tell Sir Keir how they really feel. A vote for Labour signals approval for the shell of a man described as the “least intellectually curious person” by his closest aides. A vote for Green is an endorsement for a more compassionate politics that stands against human suffering and genocide. The choice is in our hands.