Eve of poll musings

“But Jill, you were a Labour member. You campaigned for them! Why are you now saying Vote Green?”

I grew up in the Home Counties in a Conservative household but several years of working for a Conservative council, along with the miners’ strike, drew me towards Labour in my twenties.

I voted Labour from the mid-1980s until 2024. I continued to vote for them throughout the New Labour years, despite being a socialist; despite Iraq (all senior politicians will embark on a war given half a chance); despite their increasingly authoritarian policies; in 2010, in the hope of keeping the Cameron’s posh boys out of office; in 2015, despite Labour’s godawful manifesto and campaign (we should have known the immigration mug merch was a sign of things to come); enthusiastically in 2017, on a manifesto which promised real hope; in 2019, despite knowing that Starmer’s People’s Vote shenanigans in an election which was entirely about Brexit had already holed Labour below the water.

After the 2010 defeat, I decided to put my money where my mouth was and joined the Labour Party (I am not a natural joiner of things, so this was a big step). I went along to my local branch meetings, expecting to be surrounded by like-minded individuals working to a common purpose. What I quickly discovered was that the CLP and local party was riven with factionalism, underhand tactics and outright cheating. Although I remained a member for ten years, my active involvement ceased after five, as I felt it was detrimental to my wellbeing to carry on (all that I witnessed and experienced was submitted to the Forde inquiry, and the resultant report indicated that I was by no means alone in my experience).

I was still a member when Keir Starmer was elected leader. I didn’t vote for him as I had no doubt that his much-vaunted ‘pledges’ weren’t worth the paper they were written on. I stuck it out for another few months, growing increasingly angry at his inability to challenge Johnson’s mismanagement of Covid or any other policy and finally resigned my membership in November 2020. The relief I felt was palpable, and I looked forward to being free again to say what I liked.

[When I had previously told my father I was applying for selection as a Labour council candidate, his response was “I don’t think that’s a very good idea.” I was expecting a lecture on his vs my politics, but he continued, “You’re far too independent-minded to follow a party whip.” Good call, dad.]

I had been privileged to have Sir Gerald Kaufmann as my MP for many years. After his death, the Manchester Gorton seat remained safely Labour under Afzal Khan in 2017(possibly boosted by the Corbyn-era manifesto?) and even with the subsequent re-drawing of the boundaries to include part of Tameside, it remained comfortably Labour. Throughout the 2024 GE campaign, I (a now-floating left voter) was continually told that I *had* to vote Labour to keep the Tories out, after having previously been told in no uncertain terms to leave if I didn’t like Starmer’s party. In a marginal seat, I’d have maybe been torn but reckoning that Andrew Gwynne was a safe pair of hands (!) I voted Green for the first time ever in a general election. It wasn’t a ‘purity test’ vote – there is a distinct difference between not voting for a party because it doesn’t quite meet 100% of your values and not voting for them when they represent only about 2% of those values. I wouldn’t vote Reform (0%) on that basis so why would I vote Labour?

I have to admit to being wrong about Starmer’s Labour government. I was expecting disappointment, lack of ambition or vision, MPs with little actual politics other than ‘being in power’ but I wasn’t quite prepared for quite how inept and yet actively vindictive they would be. Whenever there was a good and honourable action, they chose the opposite; happy to hound the sick and disabled, gleeful in entrenching  transphobia in law, dismissive of worldwide suffering, beholden to lobbyists and big business donors rather than those who elected them. They are, to be blunt, dreadful, and yet still expect a loyal voter base that they do not deserve.

I hadn’t meant to get involved in campaigning again, but having joined the Green Party last summer, I signed up for a bit of leafleting once the Gorton & Denton by-election was called and over the last couple of weeks have canvassed, addressed envelopes and popped into the campaign HQ to pick up a couple of leafleting routes on a number of occasions. The difference in culture is astonishing. There is no hierarchy of ‘important’ people vs volunteers, people are respectful of each other and the voters. It’s collegiate, organisers are happy to learn from volunteer feedback, and – crucially – everyone is nice to everyone else. They don’t resent the influx of former Labour people as some have suggested they might. It’s been a thoroughly pleasant experience, no matter what the outcome is tomorrow.

All the indications are that it will be a very close race – depending on who you listen to, it’s either a dead heat 3-horse race, Greens slightly ahead of Reform or (according to Labour) a 2-horse Lab/Reform race that removes the Greens entirely from the equation, despite them being level pegging! Despite that, all the tactical voting sites are recommending a Green vote to keep Reform out.

I appreciate that some people will reluctantly be sticking with Labour for fear of a Reform win, but I’d urge those to consider voting Green, which has the double benefit of keeping Reform out AND giving Labour the vote of no confidence they so richly deserve.

So that’s it. I have a number of reasons for not voting Labour, a mix of personal  experience and current policy. They are actively causing harm to those I love and to wider society and I will not vote for that. For many of the same reasons, I will be voting for Hannah Spencer tomorrow, and I hoping you will too.