Coventry Greens rule out Reform alliance on City Council
The Coventry Green Party has said it is in talks about working with other after the local elections last week
The Coventry Green Party has revealed it is in discussions over working with other parties as the new city council starts to takes shape after the May 7 local election. But it has categorically ruled out any alliance with Reform UK.
Buoyed by its election successes, the Greens are now looking at whether they could form new coalitions ahead of the new political make-up of Coventry City Council being formally agreed at the AGM on May 21.
Labour ended up with 24 seats, short of an overall majority, while Reform now has 20 seats, the Conservatives six seats and the Greens four.
Leader of the Coventry Green Party group Esther Reeves, who kept her seat in Holbrooks, a ward which was entirely taken over by the Greens, also addressed criticism of anti-Semitism among her party nationally. But she declined to be drawn into the ongoing developments in the Labour government as it was crushed by its worst election results in living memory.
Asked about the election count in Coventry, which saw the local Greens double their number of seats to four, Cllr Reeves said: “We’re very happy that we’ve got all three councillors in Holbrooks and one in St Michael’s. And we were so close to a second one in St. Michael’s, where we were just three votes below the Labour candidate who was elected in third place.
“So, yes, we’re very happy. Doubling our number of counsellors and much more than doubling our share of the vote. We’re on about 20 per cent of the vote now. All things considered, we should have more seats than that, but we were very close. We had several people who came fourth.”
The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked what the next step will now be for the Greens and whether any coalitions are in the pipeline.
Hinting at potential alliances or deals being discussed, Cllr Reeves said: “So the next step is talking to other people and hopefully by the AGM (on May 21), we will have a something in place that we can agree on. Other than that, I can’t really say.”
There’s been speculation about whether the Labour group, which now has 24 seats, will be shaking hands with another party to reach a majority of 28, whether that’s a formal coalition or one-off alliances to get key policies approved. Adding the four seats of the Greens would achieve that magic number.
So are the Greens officially considering working with other parties? Cllr Reeves admitted: “There are discussions. We are always willing to look for things that we can work together with people on.
“Obviously, some people we have more in common with than others. We’re looking, we’re willing to look for compromises, basically.”
We asked if any particular collaborations have been been ruled out, and Cllr Reeves responded: “We’re a democratic party, our membership would not allow us to make any formal alliance with Reform UK.
“Any sort of alliance is always fraught because most other parties aren’t keen on them, at least at the national level, but there are some at local levels, it just depends what’s on the table.”
Looking at the national picture and the growing pressure on Keir Starmer to step down after a disastrous night for Labour, Cllr Reeves said: “The leadership of the Labour Party is an internal matter for them, but it’s all looking very reminiscent of when the Conservatives were doing a similar thing, isn’t it?”
And on the Green Party’s performance nationally and the backlash over allegations of anti-Semitism against some members, Cllr Reeves responded: “I’m very happy with our results. There are always accusations of anti-Semitism brought against any more left-leaning party, but we are investigating every single one on a national level and then if they are either are shown to be actually anti-Semitic rather than anti-Zionist, they will be dealt with because it’s not acceptable. Racism in any form is not acceptable in the Green Party.”
She conceded the party had rushed to get together a lot of candidates very quickly across the UK – locally it put forward contenders for all three seats in every ward in Coventry – but would be sorting out its vetting procedures. “We will be tightening that up. The speed at which we grew meant that there would obviously be some teething problems,” she said.