Nigel Farage has called on the Labour Party to pledge a “red line” ruling out any electoral alliances with the Greens after their conference vote branding Zionism as racism.
Writing exclusively for the JC, the Reform UK leader called the policy adopted last week “antisemitic dogma” placing Zack Polanski’s party “beyond the pale of civilised politics”.
Several Labour figures, including a former minister and a current MP, have backed the call for a red line, with one saying: “I’m no fan of Farage, but he’s absolutely correct here.”
Farage is the first political leader to demand the formal ostracisation of the Greens, in an echo of the “firewall” maintained by mainstream parties in Germany against the far-right AfD.
The call comes amid speculation that Andy Burnham may decide to have an early election next year, after which Labour may depend on a coalition with other parties to stay in power.
There are also fears that under a change to the electoral system – as backed by the prime minister – the Greens would have far more MPs than they do under the current voting system.
The prime minister and his party colleagues have condemned the Green motion, but have yet to formally rule out any future coalition with Polanski’s party.
Reform’s leader urged Labour to “speak plainly and immediately” to rule out such an alliance.
“They must reject any electoral alliance with the Greens. They must rule out any coalition whatsoever and make it clear that a party which has chosen antisemitic dogma has no place at the cabinet table,” Farage said.
He added that he had consistently opposed fringe elements from the far-right, including the British National Party, while he was leader of Ukip and refused to be associated with them.
“I have taken the same firm stance against the more extreme fringes that occasionally surface on the right. Consistency demands the same standard be applied on the left,” Farage wrote.
The motion adopted by the Green Party was robustly condemned by Jewish communal organisations including the Jewish Leadership Council and Board of Deputies, who at the time said it risked stoking “anti-Jewish hatred after a year in which British Jews have been murdered attending their synagogue, stabbed in the streets, and seen their community buildings firebombed”.
Co-deputy Leader of the Green Party Mothin Ali speaks during the Green Party Conference at Brighton Centre on October 3, 2026 in Brighton, England. (Getty Images)Getty Images
Reacting to Farage’s words, some senior figures within the party lamented that Andy Burnham and other leading Labour politicians hadn’t explicitly ruled out an alliance with the Green.
A former Labour minister told the JC that they were shocked that their party hadn’t explicitly ruled out a pact with Polanski’s party given their adoption of the controversial motion.
“I’m no fan of Nigel Farage, but he’s absolutely correct here,” they told the JC, adding: “It is shocking that the party didn’t explicitly rule out an alliance with the Green Party the moment they passed their racist motion.
“If Andy Burnham is keen to pursue electoral reform, he needs to be emphatic that he won’t be beholden to Zack Polanski and his band of extremists.”
One current Labour MP also criticised the lack of an emphatic disavowal of the Greens.
“The scenes from the Green Party’s conference were worse than anything I’d seen in Labour under Corbyn,” they told the JC.
The MP continued: “Principled parliamentarians like Caroline Lucas are being attacked by a far-left mob – some of whom are more aligned with the Iranian regime than Greenpeace – and many of whom we wisely chucked out of our party. We shouldn’t touch them with a bargepole.”
Another senior Labour source also lamented the inaction despite the rhetorical condemnation.
“There was near universal condemnation across the Labour Party to the Green’s appalling and divisive motion and Zack Polanski’s lack of leadership on it. As things stand, it’s hard to see how any deal – at any level – could be done with the Greens now,” they said.
“That won’t be a controversial view across the party; people wouldn’t be unhappy with it being formalised. We worked hard to clean up the stain of antisemitism from our party. We don’t want to be tainted again.”
Green Party candidate, Zack Polanski (C), attends the count declaration in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election on October 9, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)Getty Images
However, campaign group Labour Against Antisemitism said that while they shared Farage’s concern about a potential alliance between the Greens and Labour, they said that Britain’s Jewish community was “sick and tired of being used as a political football”.
The group’s spokesperson, Fiona Sharpe, told the JC: “Parties are scoring points off each other, with little thought for a small community facing unprecedented threats.
“No party leader has done enough to tackle antisemitism within their own ranks, or to challenge the dramatic rise in anti-Jewish racism in society.
“The situation has already deteriorated badly. What’s needed now is cross-party engagement and a firm commitment to work together before it gets even worse.”
Farage’s article also expressed particular concern that should Britain reform its voting system to a more proportional electoral system, the Greens would have more MPs and therefore wield greater influence over a future Labour government.
Burnham is a supporter of electoral reform and told Labour’s annual conference that his party’s manifesto at the next general election would promise to change how the UK elects MPs to Parliament.
Under the current electoral system, despite winning over 1.8 million votes nationally at the 2024 general election, the Greens only won four seats. In parliament’s first past the post electoral system, MPs are elected to represent specific geographical constituencies. While parties may win significant numbers of votes nationally, that won’t necessarily translate into seats in Parliament.
According to the Electoral Reform Society, had the 2024 election been held under different voting systems, the Greens could have had anywhere between 67 (under single transferable vote) and 81 seats in Parliament (under a list proportional representation system).
However, Labour sources told the JC that the next general election would be contested under the existing first past the post electoral system.
That notwithstanding, even under the current arrangements, the Greens could hold a significant influence in the event of a hung Parliament – where no party has enough MPs for a majority.
Sir John Curtice, polling expert and professor of politics at University of Strathclyde, told the JC that some polls conducted prior to the Labour Party’s annual conference showed that even an alliance between Labour and the Liberal Democrats fell short of a Commons majority.
However, he suggested that an option for Labour in such a scenario was to govern as a minority administration, avoiding the sort of coalition which the Conservatives agreed with the Democratic Unionist Party in 2017.
“After 2017, the Labour Party’s stance on these things has tended to be: we’re the largest party. We’ll just see whether the parties are willing to vote us down and precipitate another election or not.”
He cited historical precedence for such an arrangement: “You can point to what happened in 1974, when the opposition parties, for a couple of years at least, made sure that the government was not going to lose a crucial vote in the House of Commons.”
The Labour Party has been contacted for comment.
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