In another blow to Keir Starmer’s leadership, Labour Party voters now actually prefer the Green Party. According to YouGov polling, net favourability for the Greens among those who vote Labour is +42, while net favourability for Labour is +40.
A comparison of Labour’s approach under Starmer’s leadership with the Green Party demonstrates why.
Labour voters and the NHS
On the Green side of the arena, we in fact have more than adequate funding for the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan in the party’s manifesto commitments. The Greens pledged an additional £28bn for the NHS over the course of a parliament – around £3bn more than what the plan needs – along with a £20bn capital investment for buildings and equipment.
Then there’s team Labour. The party pledged just an extra £4.5bn more for the NHS budget over the five year parliament (or a yearly increase of 0.5%). This is £20bn less than what the Long Term Workforce Plan requires. Starmer spent most the election campaign trumpeting on about how he’s going to cut NHS waiting times. Without addressing workforce issues, it remains to be seen how he will do this.
Instead the whole issue of waiting times seems to be a pretext to increase private provision of NHS services. And recently, it’s gone further beyond private provision – to actual charges at the point of use.
Under Starmer and health secretary Wes Streeting’s watch, King’s College Hospital in Lambeth has started charging disabled people for using wheelchairs at £2 per hour after the first four hours. A private company with directors based in Israel called Wheelshare is delivering the toll fee.
This is how creeping privatisation moves – targeting vulnerable people for a couple of quid. Then, more charges are gradually added for more and more services.
On top of that, Labour and senior healthcare figures discussed plans for so-called ‘self-care’ to replace 25 million GP appointments at its conference. Coupled with Labour’s lack of funding, this is particularly alarming.
The Greens’ manifesto, meanwhile, stated:
Green MPs will… abolish wasteful competition within the NHS, re-establish public bodies and public accountability, and restrict the role of commercial companies.
Israel and Palestine: where has Starmer left Labour voters?
At the Greens’ Manchester conference in September, the party became the first in England and Wales to officially recognise Israel’s ongoing onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza as genocide. It also voted to confirm that Israel’s discriminatory policies regarding occupied Palestinian people and Palestinian citizens of Israel as apartheid.
Ellie Chowns, Green Party MP for North Herefordshire, said:
We don’t use terms like genocide or apartheid lightly, but they are a sad reflection of the atrocities being carried out by the Israeli State. This motion reflects International Humanitarian Law, including the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, and it is essential that British political parties unequivocally uphold these basic minimum standards of international law.
By contrast, at the Labour conference, Starmer banned the use of the words ‘apartheid’ and ‘genocide’ in publicity materials for meetings about Palestine. Maybe he’ll ban the phrase ‘whitewash’ next.
The Labour leader also previously said Israel ‘has the right’ to cut off water and electricity for the over two million people who live in Gaza. He later pretended he didn’t say it, but such an approach caused an exodus from the Labour party.
Energy and climate change
When it comes to the Greens, the party’s manifesto pledged real funding for a Green New Deal. As part of a ‘Green Economic Transformation’, the party pledges a £40bn investment per year in transitioning to a green economy. The Greens would also bring the big five energy companies into public ownership and issue a carbon tax to disincentivise fossil fuel use.
Meanwhile, Labour ditched its plan to invest a total of £28bn in a green energy transition, a figure that already wasn’t nearly enough. Instead, it’s handing fossil fuel companies £21.7bn to expand carbon capture and storage, which doesn’t even work and only serves as PR for the continuation of planet-destroying energy practices.
What could the next election bring for Labour?
With Labour voters themselves now preferring the Greens, the party could present a real challenge to Starmer at the next election. Indeed, at the 2024 election, the Greens got over 10% of the vote in 108 seats, which is a huge increase from 18 seats in 2015. They also got over 20% of the vote in 15 seats, a significant increase on just 2 in 2015.
What’s even more encouraging for those dissatisfied with Labour, is that, as well as electing four MPs, the Greens came second place in 40 seats in 2024. These are figures the party can certainly build on.
Featured image via Bristol 24/7 – YouTube and Keir Starmer – YouTube
