The Greens Came First, Not Last!

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The results of the local election were to be expected; Reform gaining 1452 councillors comes to no surprise. With how much positive media coverage they receive, you’d practically think Nigel Farage would be in 10 Downing Street. On the flip side, Labour and the Conservatives lost 1498 and 563 councillors respectively, although the Tories piling on even more losses as if the outcome of the 2024 General Election were not bad enough only solidifies Reforms soon replacement of them. Along with Reform, the Liberal Democrats and The Green Party came out with a positive result, gaining 155 and 441 councillors. The media were quick to excessively fawn over Reforms gain, almost manufacturing consent for a Reform government, whilst completely ignoring the Greens impressive results. This downplays their success and the genuine threat they pose to the establishment. 

Labour's and the Conservatives’ loss of seats were predictable. Labour strayed away from left wing politics by cutting over 10,000 jobs in NHS England (the administrative organisation responsible for overseeing the NHS in England), giving NHS patient data to IDF-supporting data integration and analytics platforms developer Palantir, and suspending Labour MP’s for rebelling against the government over the previously held stance of the two child benefit cap and cut to the winter fuel payment. The Tories have been no better. Owning a home has become harder, public satisfaction in the NHS has gone down, food bank reliance has surged, alongside a slew of scandals in their premiership. 

With this, it is understandable why the British public would be fed up with two-party politics. This government having a majority of 165 MP’s would surely mean they would be able to deliver at least some partially progressive policies instead of making it more difficult for individuals to claim PIP. A sizable piece of Labour's voting base are young graduates from urban areas, and 4 out of 10 of Labour voters in 2024 now state they are considering to vote Green, due to their desire for radical change combined with strong concerns about the cost of living. If Labour actually delivered upon their manifesto promise of ‘Change’, the outcome of this local election would have seen Reform on the whole making less gains, and the Greens seeing a considerable dip in seats.

The Labour party has proven they can be progressive, if they want, with Clement Atlee after WW2 having a majority of 145 seats which allowed him to introduce the NHS, nationalise the coal mining and electricity industry, and create the welfare state we know today. Despite that being well in the past, expecting a left wing government from a left wing party should not be a criminally insane idea, but instead, U-turns after U-turns with a sprinkle of good like the Renters Right Act 2026. 

Nationalising industries and expanding upon welfare is not part of a local election, obviously, although the results reflect how the public feel about Labour, and if they actually believe they delivered upon their manifesto which clearly, they have not. However, Green policies such as rent controls being integrated into local government, a genuine left wing policy, and the significant momentum the party has had, it comes to no surprise why a chunk of Labour’s voting base would flock to a party that is actually left wing and has a chance of impacting UK politics for the better. This seems to be a much greater alternative than voting Labour ‘just to stop Reform from getting in’, and then receiving the bare minimum.

Another thing to keep in mind about the results, is that Nigel Farage had from 2006 since becoming leader of UKIP, to build momentum and a platform to achieve his success. In comparison to Zack Polanski, he had 8 months to achieve a gain of 441 councillors since becoming leader of The Green Party in September of 2025. So arguably, if you want to get super technical, Zack Polanski getting the results that he did with a fraction of the time Nigel Farage had in a way, makes him the real winner, especially taking into consideration the landslide victory in Gorton & Denton and the amount of time there is until the next general election where better results could most definitely take place.

In addition to this, there were a plethora of councils where the Greens scored great victories, seeing historic wins in Lewisham, Hackney, Hastings and Norwich. And even if some Green councils were not able to win full control, the increase in vote share is extremely substantial. Examples of this can be seen in Brent as they came second with 42,199 votes, just beating The Conservatives and only being 15,000 votes away from Labour. The Greens in fact received the most votes in Birmingham, with 92,794, almost 2000 more votes than Labour, also seen in Newcastle Upon Tyne, with 65,742 votes, beating Reform by almost 7000 votes and Labour by 22,316.

Demand for left wing politics is there, however the media and its billionaire owners, friends and associates are most certainly not happy about it. The smear campaigns that several news outlets ran against the 43 year old leader and his party were despicable. Some of these include headlines implying Nazi salutes were taking place at Green Party rallies even though it was a member from Reform, and further accusations of The Green Party being bombarded with antisemites, purposefully conflating anti-zionism and anti-semitism to portray Polanski as hateful towards Jewish people, despite being Jewish. It is ludicrous how the media pretend to care about Jewish people, as there are Reform councillors who have shared Nazi beliefs on social media and another claiming the Holocaust was fake. If a Green councillor would have said these horrendous comments, the outrage would have been front page news everywhere and would have clogged your social media feeds for days.

From the smear campaigns to having less time to build momentum, Zack Polanski and the Greens are the real winners of this local election. The establishment are fearing a growing threat that The Green Party are no longer perceived to only be about the environment or a protest vote, but a real left wing alternative to this current labour government, as seen with the historic results produced this May.