cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6403463
cross-posted from: https://ibbit.at/post/79575
The Green Party is now just two points behind both Labour and the Conservatives, according to the latest polling from Find Out Now. With Zack Polanski, the party has surged four points in a week.
The stats on Zack as Green Party polling surges
Labour and the Conservatives are neck and neck on 17%, with the Greens on 15%. Reform still leads on 32%. But the Nigel Farage-led party has lost three points in the week since Find Out Now last polled.
The thing is, major polling agencies tend to underestimate potential left wing support. That’s because they deprioritise non voters, disenfranchised by the neoliberal system, who may well vote if they are inspired by a progressive campaign that speaks to their values.
The Green surge is unprecedented. 15% is the highest ever the the party has polled, according to Election Maps UK.
The polling increase as of Polanski’s election has come despite the corporate media continuing to sideline the Greens. Polanski was the only party leader that Laura Kuenssberg refused to interview on her Sunday politics show.
Membership surging too
The Greens have not just overtaken the Lib Dems in polling (the corporate party is on 12%, according to Find Out Now). They have also outdone the Lib Dems in terms of membership.
The Lib Dems have 83,174 members, while the Greens now have 95,000 – gaining 5,000 members in a day this week. On top of that, the Greens have 30,000 more members than they did at the time of their recent leadership election, an increase of almost 50%.
This reflects the fact that the 2010 Conservative/ Lib Dem coalition showed the Lib Dems are essentially a neoliberal copy of what the two main parties have become.
Greens had historic 2024 election
The 2024 election results are a strong basis for the Green Party to build on. Not only did they receive four MPs, but the Greens came second in 40 seats in 2024. Further, they got over 10% of the vote in 108 seats, which is a huge increase from 18 seats in 2015. They also got over 20% of the vote in 15 seats, a significant increase on just two in 2015.
Featured image via the Canary
By James Wright
From Canary via this RSS feed
Being two points behind a party that is expected to lose spectacularly is not so exciting, sadly
I hope the UK Green party isn’t funded from the same place that the USA Green party is.
The character of the two seems quite different to me, and there are no signs of dubious funding. Russian funding in UK politics has in the past been more evident on the far right. There could be some US-style concern that the Green Party will split the left vote, but honestly the left vote in the UK has few places to go these days so a well run socialist Green Party will rally people who otherwise might not vote at all. Corbyn and Sultana’s party is the most obvious competitor whose vote could suffer.
Polanski and Corbyn have both spoken about cooperation previously (I don’t know about Sultana).
They’ve even gone so far as to suggest they won’t stand candidates in seats that the other is more likely to win, so as not to split the vote.
If they can genuinely cooperate whilst still being distinctly unique parties I may have some hope for British politics yet. Particularly if that means getting proportional representation.
Why are they surging now? No one will remember who Zack Polanski is in 4 years time when it will matter. (and I say this as someone who is going to vote green regardless)
There’s widespread local elections next May so maintaining the surge now is very important for those.
If a few Labour MPs defect after a solid local elections, it come could kill off Labour.
Zack will probably still be prominent. Caroline Lucas was high profile for a long time. Often on BBC Question Time.
