Bring in ‘firewall’ against the Greens, Britain’s parties told

Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis described the Green Party motion as “poisonous antisemitism, a threat to British Jews and to Britain”.

Rabbis Charley Baginsky and Josh Levy, co-leaders of Progressive Judaism, said the Green Party had “made antisemitism party policy and become a racist party.”

The Liberal Democrats are now facing mounting pressure over its alliances with the Greens in Southwark and Birmingham, and a planned cooperation in Camden is set to be halted. But the national party has refused to rule out coalitions, insisting these are a matter for local councillors

Akehurst, MP for North Durham and a member of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee, said: “Mainstream parties need to maintain a firewall against antisemitism. The Greens have put themselves on the wrong side of it through their grotesque decision to define Zionism, which is simply the belief that Israel should exist and that Jewish people have a right to national self-determination, as being racist.

“I hope the electorate will react by pushing them into political oblivion, but there are no circumstances where Labour or any other mainstream party can share power with a party professing an ideology that breaches the IHRA definition of antisemitism.”

The row also threatens to complicate Labour’s debate over electoral reform.

The JC understands that at least one Labour MP has told the whips that the new Green policy “raises big questions” about the prime minister’s plans, which could open the door to more Green MPs.

The MP warned: “Our first-past-the-post system has kept us somewhere in the centre; a proportional representation system would open us up to racists and extremists.”

In Southwark, where 12 Liberal Democrat councillors give the 22 Greens a governing majority, the joint administration’s response has drawn criticism from within the Lib Dems.

The council said in a statement: “The Joint Administration of Southwark Council wholeheartedly believes a future is possible where Palestinians and Israelis, and indeed all communities, can live in freedom, security and prosperity.

“Today we could not be further from this, as Israel continues its genocide in Gaza and state-sponsored ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.”

In response to that, Baroness Ludford, vice-president of the Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel, condemned the coalition-run council’s “greenwash” reacting to the “antisemitic ‘Zionism is racism’ motion,” saying it should “entirely distance” itself from the policy.

Victor Kaufman-Bartfield, a Liberal Democrat campaigner and former candidate, called on his party to withdraw from the Southwark coalition.

“Many members would be in uproar if we formed a formal alliance with Reform UK or the BNP but there seems to be a blind spot to racism that comes from the left.

“I am a Lib Dem because I believe in liberalism, and oppose racism. In councils like Southwark my party should not be propping up a constitutionally antisemitic party. Whatever agreement they have in place should have been torn up the second the [Zionism is racism] policy got adopted.”

He said the council’s statement “adds salt to the wound”.

“To have to qualify its stance on antisemitism with inaccurate and offensive quotes about Israel committing genocide, they’d have been better off saying nothing at all.”

In Camden, the Liberal Democrats had been due to cooperate with the Greens on a cross-party climate taskforce announced at the last council meeting.

That is now set to be halted as Liberal Democrat group leader Councillor Tom Simon and parliamentary candidates Patrick Sillman and Katie Mansfield said the Greens had “crossed a line,” jeopardising “the rights to manifest one’s religion”. They invited any “real Greens” to join their party.

But asked about council alliances, Zöe Franklin MP, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for local government and faith, told the JC: “Decisions about local council arrangements are made entirely by local councillors on the ground, who know their communities best.”

She added: “The Green’s policy is divisive, irresponsible and deeply insensitive at this time of rising threats of antisemitism and Islamophobia, and risks significantly increasing community tensions in the UK.

“The policy conflates British Jews attending synagogues with the most extreme positions of the Israeli far right and will cause concern throughout the Jewish community here in Britain. Liberal Democrats condemn this, it is utterly wrong.”

Equalities minister Bridget Phillipson said the Green vote “crosses a line”.

The Labour chair said: “It is shameful to vote against a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine and to condemn the vast majority of British Jews and Jews around the world as racist for supporting Israel’s right to exist.”

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the vote demonstrated that the Greens were “toxic to its core”.

“British Jews should not have to disclaim a belief in Jewish self-determination and the existence of Israel in order to be accepted by a British political party,” he said.

Justice minister Sarah Sackman, MP for Finchley and Golders Green, described it as a “discriminatory and warped” motion and said it marked a “dark day for British politics”.

Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs have referred the Greens to the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Liberal Democrat MPs Max Wilkinson, Marie Goldman and Zoe Franklin asked the watchdog to investigate whether the party had breached the Equality Act 2010.

Labour MPs led by former Home Office minister Mike Tapp and Labour Friends of Israel chair Mark Sewards also wrote to Sussex Police, asking if chants of “say it loud, say it clear, Zionists are not welcome here” could constitute racial or religious hatred under the Public Order Act.

David Taylor, Labour MP for Hemel Hempstead, said former Labour members had “infiltrated” the Greens, turning it into an “antisemitic and racist” party. He urged Greens who opposed the motion to challenge it: “The time for mealy-mouthed and vague responses is over.”