Labour Lost Four Times More Voters To Greens Than Reform

Labour lost almost four times as many voters to the Green Party than to Reform UK during the local elections, according to a respected pollster.

Voters brutally punished Keir Starmer’s party when voting for more than 5,000 council seats in England on May 7.

Reform picked up more than 1,450 council seats in the major elections, particularly in former Labour strongholds.

Starmer’s party lost more than 1,460 seats across the country, a catastrophic defeat which triggered calls for the prime minister to step down so Labour can fight Reform under a new leader.

However, YouGov has found 22% of Labour’s 2024 voters switched to the Green Party in the local elections.

In comparison only 6% of 2024 Labour voters supported Reform UK.

Overall, 46% of that voting cohort were loyal to the party, compared to 55% of the 2024 Tory voters who continued backing the Conservatives.

Four in 10 Labour and Lib Dem voters also said wanting to stop another party from winning was one of the top reasons they voted the way they did.

A Green Party spokesperson said: “Labour’s attempt to out-Reform Reform has been a spectacular failure, only playing into Nigel Farage’s hands.

“The public are crying out for the real change the Greens have been campaigning for: rent controls, proper wealth taxes, lower bills, public ownership of water, and an end to support for genocide and illegal wars. People in Gorton and Denton saw that the Greens are a viable alternative and can win.

“It’s no surprise that many voters alienated by Labour are now backing us.”

A Labour spokesperson declined to comment.

After the election results, Starmer said: “I could stand here and say Runcorn was close, we successfully defended three mayoralties, and the opposition parties tend to do well in these sorts of elections.

“But I’m not going to do that. What I am going to do is to respond by saying: I get it.”

He said NHS waiting lists are down, while wages are rising faster than prices and that interest rates are falling.

The prime minister said this suggests that the “tough decisions” Labour has made are starting to pay off.

“But the message I take out of these elections is that we need to go further and we need to go faster on the change people want to see. And that’s what I’m determined to do,” Starmer said.

Labour also lost control over the Welsh Senedd for the first time since devolution began almost 30 years ago on May 7, while the Greens won two seats – their first representation ever in the Welsh parliament.

Labour came a distant second to the SNP in the Holyrood elections, tying with Reform who made an electoral breakthrough north of the border.

The Scottish Greens also won a record 15 seats in Scotland.

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