Published in January and based on interviews with more than 2,000 voters, a poll from Whitestone Insight shows current UK voting intention as follows: Labour 25%, Reform UK 24%, Conservatives 20%, Greens 13% and Liberal Democrats 12%. As Labour falters in government, support for the Greens is rising close to an all-time high, driven by our policies that put people and the planet first. That’s heartening to see. However, overtaking almost all other parties in the Whitestone poll is Reform – something that should worry all progressive-thinking people from across the political divide.
We know that Reform’s policies are rooted in racism and the scapegoating of migrants. But the party is fast gaining support beyond its traditional far-right base, with voters often citing the failure of Labour and the Conservatives to improve living standards for them and their families. To quote from a recent post on the Facebook page of Reform UK Torridge & Tavistock: “I’m not a silly old sod rightwing extremist! Just a worried dad and granddad, hoping that Reform UK will get the chance to put right the car crash this country has become.”
In reality, of course, Reform would govern solely in the interests of its billionaire, Trump-supporting backers, slashing not only the corporate taxes that fund public services but also the regulations intended to protect workers and the environment. On climate, the party has pledged to scrap net zero targets and end subsidies to the renewables industry, which it claims is “ripping off” taxpayers. The effect of this would be to make energy bills soar for households and businesses in a Britain ever more reliant on expensive – and planet-devastating – oil and gas imports.
A Reform government is not some hypothetical nightmare. Our first-past-the-post voting system can deliver a majority government with a minority of votes, as we now see in Parliament, where Labour has a majority of 174 after winning only 33.8% of the overall vote.
So how should we as Greens navigate this seemingly bleak political landscape? That’s the question discussed by Caroline Lucas and Rupert Read in an article recently published in the New Statesman, in which they call for “a common-sense platform of climate populism” – putting the focus on protecting communities against climate catastrophe and helping people to understand the practical benefits of taking action for themselves and their families. As Lucas and Read note: “There is no adequate way forward on climate without consensus. While today’s populists have made progress by fomenting polarisation, a successful climate popularism must behave differently. If we turn [climate change] adaptation into another culture war, then we guarantee that the climate question remains insoluble.”