LABOUR ENDS POWER-SHARING WITH GREENS IN 11 COUNCILS OVER ZIONISM POLICY

Labour has ended power-sharing deals with the Green Party in 11 councils, after Green members passed a motion titled "Zionism is racism" at their October conference. Labour Party chair Bridget Phillipson said: "Labour has been clear from the start that the 'Zionism is Racism' policy crosses a line and we cannot work with any party that supports it – at any level of government." Green Party leader Zack Polanski said the move would "backfire" on Labour. Prime Minister Andy Burnham had told MPs Labour would not partner with the Greens over what he called an "antisemitic" policy.

The motion describes Zionism as an ideology supporting an "ethnonationalist Jewish State in historic Palestine" and instead backs a "single democratic Palestinian State" covering modern-day Israel. Labour said 18 such agreements existed nationally; 11 failed to meet its conditions, including Sheffield, Warwick, Lewes, Arun, Derbyshire Dales, Havant, Runnymede, Wealden, West Devon and West Suffolk. Accounts differ over an eleventh authority, named as Coventry in one and Stafford in another. In Lewes, the Green Party said it was ending its alliance with Labour "mutually", while Labour said co-operation in Runnymede had already ceased.

Labour said six other areas — Broadland, Monmouthshire, North Somerset, Rother, West Oxfordshire and West Sussex — met its conditions, and power-sharing will continue there. Jewish groups have said the policy is antisemitic because it dismisses the right of Jewish people to self-determination in their own homeland. The Green Group Office, which represents Green councillors nationally, said it was "hugely disappointed" by moves putting successful local partnerships at risk. Polanski did not vote on the motion himself at the Brighton conference but later said he would have sought to soften its wording.