UK elections: Here's where Greens, Your Party and independents will challenge Labour

His Labour Party is defending over half of the 5,000 council seats being contested across England in 136 councils next month, in the most crucial electoral contest since Starmer became prime minister of the UK in July 2024. The economy is struggling, particularly amid the US-Israeli war on Iran, Labour is flailing in the polls and Starmer's own popularity is historically low. Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, has been dominating in the polls for over a year and is looking at the May elections as its chance to take over as many local councils as possible. Polling suggests the right-wing party could win as many as 17 councils and 1,500 councillors. But it gets worse for Starmer. These elections are the perfect storm: as well as the right-wing threat, Labour faces an enormous challenge from the left – and not just from one party. The insurgent Green Party, led by Zack Polanski since last summer, is riding high, with massive support from young voters. In February, Polanski oversaw a striking by-election victory in Greater Manchester's Gorton and Denton, which saw Green candidate Hannah Spencer overturn a Labour majority of over 13,000 and defeat Reform. At the same time, the new left-wing outfit Your Party has unveiled its strategy for the elections. Your Party gets its act together Labour might have hoped that Your Party and the Greens would be at each other's throats, splitting the left-wing anti-Labour vote. Instead, the two parties seem to be operating a coordinated offensive. And Your Party's internecine civil war, which raged even during its founding conference last November, has quietened down after Jeremy Corbyn was elected as parliamentary leader in February. With the Green Party emerging as a national force, Your Party is adopting a selective approach centred on supporting independent candidates and targeted groups. Corbyn said recently: All across the country, there will be community independent groups offering an alternative to the despair of Labour and the division of Reform. We are proud to support those candidates and groups standing up for redistribution, inclusion and peace. How independent MPs transformed British politics Read More » The phenomenon of the successful anti-establishment independent politician emerged on a large scale in the May 2024 local elections, which saw Labour lose around a third of the vote in areas with sizeable Muslim populations. In some cases, this was to independent candidates standing on a pro-Gaza platform or to Green Party candidates who had supported a ceasefire. Then in the July 2024 general election, four Labour politicians were unseated in a political earthquake that brought four Muslim independent candidates, who had campaigned on pro-Gaza, anti-establishment platforms, into parliament. Corbyn, a former Labour leader who left the party after disagreements with the new leadership, was also successfully re-elected as an independent. The Independent Alliance formed by these five independent MPs became the basis for the creation of Your Party a year later. A coordinated offensive On Thursday, Your Party announced it is supporting allied community independent groups at the local elections, and is hopeful of several groups winning councils in East London. The party's campaign will focus on the underfunding of local councils and the need for public investment and the in-sourcing of services. The war on Iran and Britain's decision to allow the US to use UK bases to attack Iranian missile sites is also set to be a significant source of discontent among many voters. Local council divestment from Israeli apartheid will also be a key focus, Your Party said. The party is supporting around 250 candidates across England, most of whom are standing as independents or for local community parties that have been endorsed by Your Party. Key targets include Tower Hamlets, run by Lutfur Rahman's Aspire. Exclusive: Michael Gove secretly looked for extremism in Tower Hamlets audit but found none Read More » Rahman, a former Labour politician, was elected mayor of Tower Hamlets in May 2022. He held the position from 2010 to 2015 but was found guilty of electoral fraud in April 2015 and banned from standing for public office for six years, before retaking the council with his own party. Tower Hamlets has a distinctive character, with the highest proportion of Muslims in the UK, at 39 percent according to the 2021 census, alongside some of the highest rates of poverty. Your Party described Tower Hamlets as a beacon council, saying that under Rahman’s leadership, the council has rolled out free school meals for all primary and secondary school students; re-established the Education Maintenance Allowance cut by the Tory-Lib Dem coalition; and reinstated the Winter Fuel Payment cut by the Labour government. Rahman said: In Tower Hamlets, we’ve shown how socialist, redistributive policies can transform lives and provide the hopeful, ambitious alternative needed to take on the far right – something Labour has utterly failed to do. The battle for London Another key battleground is Redbridge Council in east London, which the Redbridge Independents are hoping to control. The group's Noor Jahan Begum, who is now Your Party's spokesperson, was elected councillor in the area in March 2025. She said Your Party was taking the fight to Labour in their heartlands. In Redbridge and across the country, people are telling us that they feel let down and abandoned by Labour, outraged by their complicity in genocide and fed up of the status quo, she said. We are offering something different: a politics rooted in and accountable to our communities, a politics that campaigns for the social transformation people are crying out for. Wes Streeting accused of dog whistle politics over campaign letter Read More » Last week, Middle East Eye reported that Health Secretary Wes Streeting, an MP in the area, wrote a letter to Redbridge residents saying: I'm writing to ask you to lend your vote to Labour to keep this brand of divisive politics out of our community and stop our Borough becoming a rotten Borough like Tower Hamlets. Labour MPs criticised Streeting in response, and the Redbridge Independents' leader, Vaseem Ahmed, told MEE the health secretary was attacking a dedicated and diverse group of local residents seeking real change. In Newham, also in east London, Labour is facing another serious challenge from the Newham Independents Party, which has recently won multiple council by-elections. Meanwhile, a former Labour councillor turned Green mayoral candidate, Liam Shrivastava, is hoping the Greens win control of the council and the mayoralty in Lewisham, in southeast London. Polls predict that no party will gain overall control. Polling nationally suggests that the Greens could win up to nine councils, including in Labour strongholds like Hackney and Lambeth in London. 'The beginning of the fightback' In the Midlands, Labour's hold on Britain's second city, Birmingham, seems uncertain. There are 101 council seats up for grabs in the city, which has a Muslim population of 22 percent. According to the polls, an assortment of independents and Greens have a strong chance of stripping Labour of its majority. In Newcastle, in northeast England, the city council has a minority Labour administration and 78 seats to fight for. The Greens, Reform and independent candidates are competing for the council, with former Labour mayor Jamie Driscoll – now a Green candidate – saying the Greens and independents could together take control. Rahman, the Tower Hamlets candidate, said: The alliance being brought together by Jeremy Corbyn, with Your Party, Aspire, and progressive independent and Green candidates, presents a real opportunity to replace more Labour-led councils with administrations rooted in and accountable to their communities. Corbyn added: These elections are the beginning of the fightback against austerity, privatisation and fear. People in power underestimate the power of people at their peril – and arrogance in office always comes back to bite you in the end. UK Politics News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0