Green Party exits council coalition after Zionism row

The Green Party group on a West Sussex council has left a coalition arrangement after the national party adopted a policy defining Zionism as a form of racism.

Arun District Council (ADC) leader, Liberal Democrat Martin Lury, said the three other parties would "continue as a minority administration ensuring stability at Arun".

This comes after the national Green Party passed a "Zionism is racism" motion last month, a move which saw Labour pull out of a number of council power-sharing deals.

Leader of the Greens at ADC, Sue Wallsgrove, said the party took the "pragmatic approach to leave the local alliance of councillors" due to Labour's request that such arrangements be ended.

Wallsgrove said: "The National Labour party demanded that local Labour parties sought public condemnation of the motion Zionism is Racism from our group.

"We provided statements that we had not supported nor voted for the motion."

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Conservative MPs Andrew Griffith for Arundel and South Downs, and Bognor and Littlehampton MP Alison Griffiths, separately asked Lury to end the arrangement.

In their letter, the MPs said: "Jewish residents living in Arun District deserve to know that the people running their council take antisemitism seriously."

They asked Lury to "end your coalition agreement with the Green Party".

Wallsgrove said the Green group was "very disappointed" by the outcome, stressing it was "important that Arun is not destabilised by a completely new administration".

Lury thanked the Green group for "their valuable contribution over the last three and a half years".

The letter came ahead of a full council meeting on Wednesday where a motion of no confidence in the current administration was due to be considered.

However, the meeting ran out of time, with the motion now expected to be considered in January.

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