We all know that Labour was trounced in the May elections, and that Reform UK won big. But what you wouldn’t know from reading or listening to the establishment media was where Labour’s lost votes actually went.

By Danny Byrne

Of those who voted for Labour in the 2024 general election, only a minority did so again in May. But the overwhelming majority of those who jumped ship did not do so to get behind Farage and his poisonous racism. Reform won the support of only 6% of 2024 Labour voters, compared to one third of 2024 Tory voters. What a damning indictment of Starmer’s political strategy of fending off the racists by pandering to them!

Millions searching for left alternative

In fact, more than three times as many people deserted Labour in search of an alternative to their left, overwhelmingly to support the Green Party. What attitude should socialists take to this?

On the one hand of course, the fact that Zack Polanski’s growing force did so well is in many ways a consequence of the dismal failure of Your Party (which Socialist Alternative fought tooth and nail to build), whose leadership squandered an historic opportunity to build a mass socialist opposition.

Overall however, the fact that millions of young and working-class people used this election to punish Labour by supporting a party which argues against austerity, war and racism, and campaigns for a wealth tax and nationalisation of utilities, is an encouraging sign. Above all, it shows important raw material for the building of a mass movement of millions to challenge both the failed political establishment and rising racist right.

The Greens decimated Labour in several key heartlands, knocking them out of power in councils which had functioned, in effect, as one party states for decades. The biggest earthquakes were in London, where five Green-led councils have just been inaugurated. In Waltham Forest, the Greens went from zero councillors to an overall majority of 31! Across the country, many ‘paper candidates’ (who stand to fill spaces on ballot papers but for whom no campaigning actually takes place) were, to their great surprise, elected in historic voter swings.

For many of these newly-elected councillors, the euphoria will now have passed and the reality of the task ahead is settling in. How will they face up to the test?

Green councils have been elected based on varied manifestos, but with several consistent and laudable themes. These include action to address the housing crisis, the reversal of decades of austerity in council budgets, and taking clear stances in opposition to genocide, racism and LGBTQ+phobia.

However, Green councils will inherit the exact same Westminster-imposed budgetary constraints which have led their predecessors to implement policies which point squarely in the opposite direction – and not just Labour councils! In fact, the Green party themselves, when tested in local government in Brighton and Bristol in recent years have overseen millions worth of cuts and confronted, not supported, striking workers.

If a similar approach – of ‘reluctant’ austerity implementation – is taken today, many will justifiably ask the question: are the Greens actually any different?

Instead, socialists, trade unionists and housing campaigners should demand a fundamentally different approach.

A five-point socialist plan for anti-cuts councils

1. Needs-based budgets

An anti-cuts council must have as its starting point not Westminster’s austerity diktats, but the needs of working-class communities. Community organisations including unions, housing campaigns, food banks, and anti-war campaigns should be brought together to collectively formulate council policy on key issues. This should include the setting of a no-cuts budget.

2. Organise to fight

The council chamber is not the main arena of struggle to implement the change we need. Armed with an inspiring agenda to rebuild our communities, a socialist council could mobilise a powerful movement to force Westminster’s hand. Promoted by the council together with local organisations of struggle, Green-led councils could witness the biggest demonstrations in their history, and coordinated strike action could be prepared. This was the approach which led to Liverpool council, under Thatcher’s government no less, successfully winning £90 million in extra funding to build council housing, create jobs and improve local services.

3. Don’t just wait for Westminster

Fighting the central government for more funds is decisive. However, councils can use their powers to implement change here and now and should be expected to do so. In relation to the housing crisis for example, landlord licensing can be leveraged to impose effective rent controls to address the housing emergency. Councils can make the building of genuinely affordable social housing, not condos for gentrifying millionaires, central to all construction projects to tackle grotesque waiting lists. Outsourcing of council contracts can be ended. These and many other measures can and must be taken without the prior permission of Westminster, whoever is in power there.

4. Divestment now! Build anti-war boroughs of solidarity

Council pension funds are up to their eyes in investments which fund companies complicit in the genocide in Gaza and the imperialist war machine in general. For divestment now! No companies complicit with blood on their hands should be welcome in our boroughs through premises, public advertisement or otherwise. Amid the rise of the racist right, left-wing councils should stand out as real beacons of resistance. Statements of solidarity and hoisting flags is not enough. Socialist councils can act as organisers-in-chief of the anti-racist and anti-war movements, putting their weight behind mass local and national protests, organising transport and providing publicity free of charge to unions and campaigning organisations.

5. Build a national movement for change

Socialism cannot be built in one borough. By implementing real change and mobilising working-class communities, socialist councils can push forward the struggle for political power on a national scale. Councils could come together and form a national alliance to demand funding and new powers for local government, but also to make the case for socialist policies in general.