What happened:
On 4 October 2026 Green Party members at their conference in Brighton voted, 1,022 to 813, for a motion that Zionism is racism and should be treated as any other form of racism, and that the party backs a single democratic state in all of historic Palestine with equal rights for all. On 14 October the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, told the Commons: "It is wrong, it is antisemitic, and this side of the House will have nothing to do with it." On 15 October Labour's chair, Bridget Phillipson, directed Labour groups in 17 councils to end their power-sharing deals unless their Green partners formally rejected the motion within seven days. On Monday 2 November Labour's National Executive Committee told Labour councillors to withdraw from every joint administration where the local Greens had not disavowed it.
Who loses their administration:
Arun, Derbyshire Dales, Havant, Lewes, Runnymede, Sheffield, Stafford, Warwick, Wealden, West Devon and West Suffolk. In Sheffield, Labour holds 26 of 84 seats and the Greens 19; Labour's leader Fran Belbin says she will run the city as a minority, 16 seats short of a majority. Deals survive in Broadland, Monmouthshire, North Somerset, Rother, West Oxfordshire and West Sussex, where Labour says the local Greens distanced themselves enough. Phillipson's words: the policy "crosses a line and we cannot work with any party that supports it, at any level of government."
What the councillors say:
The Green Party's local government group said it was "hugely disappointed in moves designed by national parties to force local council leaders" into jeopardising partnerships, and that "across the country, Green, Labour, independent and Liberal Democrat councillors have worked together" to give residents stable local government. Sheffield's Green group leader Angela Argenzio said: "Decisions about how our council is run should be made here in Sheffield, not dictated from Westminster", and that Labour "owns the consequences". Rother's Green leader Polly Gray called it "a horrible situation". The law protects Jewish people from discrimination and abuse as a religious and an ethnic group. Zionism is a political ideology about a state, held by some Jews and rejected by others; the Green Party's leader, Zack Polanski, is Jewish. Labour's own conference voted in September 2025 to recognise Israel's genocide in Gaza. Thirteen months later Labour is breaking up councils to punish a party for naming the ideology behind it.
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