UK politics: Green MP Siân Berry says opponents of Zionism motion were ‘persuaded’ not to fight it because of byelection – as it happened

It came after Kemi Badenoch used her Conservative party conference speech on Wednesday to reject the idea of a deal, saying: “To those who say ‘unite the right’, we are not uniting with that.” Speaking to reporters on Friday, Jenrick said: The Tories ruling out a deal with Reform is like me saying to Thomas Tuchel that I’m ruling out being selected for the England squad versus Croatia.

I mean, doing a deal with the Tory party is like being handcuffed to a zombie. It’s not something we’re interested in, trust me.

Many of the most senior figures in the Green party – its MPs, former leaders and peers – have expressed concerns about the party allowing the “Zionism is racism” motion to pass, and Zack Polanski’s role in what happened. In an interview on the World at One, Jonathan Bartley, a former co-leader, joined this chorus.

He said that allegations of antisemitism meant there was now “a certain toxicity” around the party, and he accused Polanski of a failure of leadership. Bartley said that in some respects Polanski had done a “really good job” as leader. But the Zionism motion was not handled well, he said. He went on: As Caroline Lucas said on Newsnight last night, it was a failure of leadership from Zack. [See 2. 55am.

] And there is a certain toxicity now around the Green party which clearly is gaining some traction. We’re losing a lot of older voters. The demographic has become younger and younger. I think we’re polling now at levels we were at when I stepped down as leader in 2021, around 9%

The Green MP Siân Berry has said that many members who, like her, were opposed to the “Zionism is racism” motion at conference were “persuaded” not to publicly campaign against it because of the byelection happening at the same time. In a statement today, she says she accepts that passing the motion has done “genuine damage” to the party’s reputation.

Berry argued and voted against it, but she says she should have done more to kill it off and she apologises. She also says that she is glad Zack Polanski has now said he would have voted against the motion that was passed had he been there, and she urges the party to fix the flaws in it.

Berry does not say whether any particular individuals persuaded her not to campaign against the motion in public, or whether she is just referring to a general climate of opinion in the party.

As Megan Kenyon from the New Statesman reports, Greens Organise, a Green party group that campaigned for Zack Polanski to become leader, has issued a statement saying he deserves to stay on as leader. Here is an extract. A year ago, Zack started us on this journey - we surged to over 220,000 members, won control of multiple Councils and beat Reform in Gorton & Denton.

We shook Labour to its core and forced a Prime Minister to resign. But not all growth and success is linear, there will be ups and downs; the real test for a political organisation is how we deal with failure. We have re-shaped the British political landscape. The Green Party can still become the ecosocialist party we need. Zack is still the leader who can get us there.

Peter Walker and Alexandra Topping are talking about the Holborn and St Pancras byelection in the latest edition of our Politics Weekly UK podcast.

Compass, the leftwing group campaigning for more pluralism in progressive politics, has issued a long statement saying the Holborn and St Pancras byelection shows why Labour and the Green party should work together. Here is an extract. Last night was both triumph and tragedy for the Green Party. A tragedy because they failed to win a seat that only six months ago they probably would have secured.

But weirdly, unexpectedly and unintendedly it is also a triumph. For it is undoubtedly the Greens who have done as much as anyone to rid the country of Starmerism. By mounting a credible political and electoral threat to Labour’s left, realised most spectacularly in the Gorton and Denton by-election and then in May’s local elections, the Greens showed that progressives did have somewhere else to go.

And that changed everything. Much to the displeasure of Labour’s right, the party were forced to crown, without a contest, the only politician in the country who has a chance to meet both the twin

At the Conservative party conference this week, Robert Jenrick, the party’s former justice spokesperson and Kemi Badenoch’s main rival in the leadership contest, was elevated to the status of the party’s chief villain. That’s because of his defection to Reform UK, or his role as a “turncoat” as it was put in the party’s spoof Bayeaux Tapestry.

This morning “the turncoat”, who is now Reform UK’s Treasury spokesperson, gave a speech. It was about the economic choices facing the country, and included criticism of Labour, but Jenrick sounded at his most passionate when he was laying into former colleagues. Jenrick pointed out that the main policy announcements at the Tory conference favoured the very rich. He explained: People earning a hundred and fifty grand a year will get free childcare. People in £2m houses will get a council tax cut. And if the people who pass away in that mansion have £1m more in the bank, they’ll pay nothing whatsoever. Kensington Kemi knows who her people are. Mil

Vivien Lichtenstein, the leader of the Jewish Greens, has called for Zack Polanski to step down as pressure increases on the Green leader to acknowledge anger within the party over a new policy which equates Zionism with racism and calls for the state of Israel to be abolished. Peter Walker has the story.

Here are some more responses to the Holborn and St Pancras byelection result from journalists and commentators. From Patrick English from YouGov Just to temper the chat a little bit around what will yes definitely be a morning of disappointment for the Greens... This was not a seat we would *expect* them to win. It is not like other areas in London where they did so well in May (Hackey, Lewisham, Waltham Forest).

From the politics professor Steven Fielding For any governing party in modern times defending a seat midterm, this is a very good result. But it’s not so good Burnham should even think about holding an early general election. From the New Statesman’s Ben Walker Grns performed as Britain Predicts expects. But Lab outperform. To what extent that is...

A greater willingness to tactically vote Lab to beat the Grns And/or A reflection of the Labour bounce in London ... needs some research. Will change a few dynamics either way. From Adam Ramsay, a journalist and Green party member

Back to the byelection, and the politics professor Rob Ford has written an analysis of the results for Sky News. Here is an excerpt. This was a strong performance for Labour on several metrics. The decline in Labour’s vote share, at just 3. 7 points, was well below the average drop of 19. 3 points across the four by-elections during Starmer’s premiership, where Burnham was not on the ballot.

The drop here was indeed smaller than the average drop in Labour support found during Tony Blair’s first term (11. 1%). The Labour to Green swing, at 13. 1 points, was well below many of the swings the Greens achieved in the 2024 general election and this May’s local elections, and a pale shadow of the 26. 5-point swing the party achieved in Gorton and Denton in February.

Andy Burnham has pledged to make dementia research a national priority as he announced a £48m industry partnership to accelerate the search for a cure, the Press Association reports. PA says: The prime minister, whose father Roy died last month after suffering from Alzheimer’s, said he wanted Britain “to be the country that makes the breakthrough”.

The government will invest £33m, and there is also funding from Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK and Gates Ventures to help recruit more people for clinical studies. The investment will support The Barbara Alliance, which was launched in memory of the late EastEnders actress Dame Barbara Windsor to speed up the development of dementia treatments.

It will establish a platform connecting health data, research and clinical trial capabilities to make it easier to find participants for trials. Burnham said: Dementia is a devastatingly cruel disease, not only for those who live with it, but for the families who care for them. For too long, we have accept

Caroline Lucas, the former Green leader, has said that Sunday’s vote for the “Zionism is racism” motion has shown how the party is “woefully exposed” to entryism. In an article for the New Statesman, she said passing the motion crossed “a very significant red line” and she said the party urgently needed to reform its internal procedures to stop this happening again.

She explained: It’s worth recalling that this motion was supported by 1,022 self-selected members – just 0. 5% of the party’s total membership – an unknown number of whom were actively encouraged to join the Green party simply to vote to push the motion through. This speaks volumes about the vulnerability of our internal structures.

Entryism has been a problem for many parties, but with our commitment to direct democracy and our cumbersome internal accountability mechanisms, the Greens are woefully exposed. In the weeks and months to come, we Greens have urgent work to do: taking action to show everyone in our communities, e

In his speech in Manchester, Andy Burnham congratulated Sagal Abdi-Wali on her victory in the byelection. He said: We’re here in Manchester. But actually, it’s good news from London that it’s lifting us.

And I just wanted to say congratulations to Sagal Abdi-Wali, the new member of parliament for Holborn and St Pancras – and, relevant to this morning, the constituency that is the capital of innovation in the UK, home to the Crick Institute, the Alan Turing Institute and so much more.

These are from the More in Common pollster Luke Tryl on the Holborn and St Pancras byelection result. 3000+ majority for Labour, comfortable and a sign of Burnham’s gains on the left. Labour vote barely drops. Green vote significantly up from 2024, but less impressive if you assume lots of Feinstein 2024 voters went to the Greens. Bad result for the Greens but not at worst end Wider context to the Holborn result: this chart shows the proportion of Labour’s 2024 vote going to different parties. Post Gorton over 1 in 10 Labour 24 voters were going to the Greens - that number has more than halved as Labour’s retention improved, particularly on the left.

Tryl also points out that it was a record bad result for George Galloway, who in the past has pulled off two remarkable byelection victories. Obviously not helped by the fact he is in self imposed exile. But Holborn was George Galloway’s worst ever result in a Westminster election.

Here is Guardian video of Zack Polanski responding to the byelection result.

Kaynak: The Guardian · Özgün metin İngilizcedir.