r/UKGreens

This is why it's so foolish (as well as deeply unethical) to follow Farage in scapegoating immigrants, it was never about the numbers. Labour are digging their own grave by validating Farage's false narrative.

A large portion of people in this country have bought into it to the point where they believe that net migration is going up when it's going down (and that's across all parties not just Reform).

I for one am glad that the Greens are pushing back against this without equivocation; it's sorely needed now that fascism is rising once again globally and never has fascism been of benefit to ordinary people.

Let us not fall for the same old tricks by indulging the darkness within us just so a few rich people can pay a bit less tax and have even more freedom to do what they want irrespective of the consequences for our planet.

Wes Streeting has made his first major proposal since leaving Keir Starmer's cabinet by calling for a wealth tax.

The former health secretary has called for capital gains tax to be equalised with income tax, saying Britain needs a "wealth tax that works."

Speaking to the BBC, Streeting said the reform would address a system that was "penalising work", and would encourage investment by offering lower rates of capital gains tax to "genuine" entrepreneurs.

The Labour MP resigned from Starmer's government last week and is widely expected to be part of a leadership challenge to the PM.

I am a member of the Labour Party. Just received an email asking me to canvass in Makerfield. Hard on the heels of yesterday's email asking for money. Why would I do that? Imagine being the absolute chump who spent time and money helping Josh Simons get elected. I almost hope the seat is lost to Reform. The entitlement is breathtaking.

With Andy Burnham walking back a lot of his more left-leaning policies, and falling closer in line with Starmer-ism, does it make sense to push a heavy campaign in the seat? There are already 60 Labour MPs calling for PR, would Labour see this defeat (either to Greens, or to Reform on a split center / left vote), as an even greater reason to call for proportional representation?

‘A frontrunner to be the Green Party candidate in Makerfield shared posts that claimed Israel is “ruining the world”.

Hayley Pierce, a portrait artist, is understood to be the Greens’ preferred choice to take on Andy Burnham and Reform UK in the upcoming by-election.

Party sources said the mother of two, understood to have been selected by local party members at a meeting this week, was undergoing vetting by Green Party HQ in anticipation of the announcement

🔗 Tap the link in the comments to read more’

Until recently I was in the "We should stand down to not split the left wing vote" camp. But then the u turns started coming in from Burnham, PR, the EU, keeping Reeves financial rules... more and more it looks like Burnham is just gonna be Starmer 2.0 in which case we should absolutely be running a candidate and going full steam ahead with campaigning.

I feel like we need to be prepared for this - there’s a very high chance that Burnham will win this by-election, get heaps of positive press then when he becomes Labour leader they will get a healthy polling bounce, in large part due to Green voters switching back to Labour.

This will likely be combined into a lot of punching the bruise of Zack’s recent mistakes. What I think is that in the event this happens, as Greens we shouldn’t panic and fall into a narrative that this is all inevitable. There are a few things to consider

1. The fact that this happening at all is in large part due to our good work. Gorton and Denton and the locals are already pulling British politics left

2. We need to be ready and waiting to hold Burnham to account - if he ends up sliding back to the right, and giving us Starmerism with a northern accent and long eyelashes, those voters will come back to us - he will probably do some big ticket progressive items when he lands, but I’m sceptical the forces of the PLP and media won’t pull him back right

3. If he does stick left enough to hold onto our old voters because - then that may be disappointing and we’ll still work hard to incremental gains, but we’ll have had a huge impact regardless.

More broadly some in Labour will want to cast his honeymoon as the end of history, and cast the Green surge as a flash in the pan that’s over and done with. We need to resist that mindset, see the bigger picture and remember things can change very quickly.