Labour to ditch Greens on council over Zionism vote

Labour has said it will end its coalition deal and run Sheffield City Council as a minority administration after the national Green Party adopted a policy defining Zionism as a form of racism.

Sheffield Labour said the city's Green Party had "refused to distance itself" from the national policy, so it would go it alone after Wednesday's full council meeting.

Nationally, Labour said it would end power-sharing agreements with the Greens on local councils, unless councillors disowned the party's newly-adopted policy.

The Greens called the decision "a really troubling attack on local democracy", and accused the group of taking "top-down demands from London".

In October, Green Party members backed a motion, entitled "Zionism is racism", which said Zionism was an ideology that supported an "ethnonationalist Jewish State in historic Palestine". It also backed a "single democratic Palestinian State", including in modern-day Israel.

Having been backed by party members, the motion became Green Party policy, but it left senior figures bitterly divided. Jewish groups and opposition political parties have condemned it.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham told MPs in October that Labour would not partner with the Greens over the "antisemitic" policy.

Sheffield City Council leader Fran Belbin, who is a Labour member, said: "We have heard powerfully and passionately from our Sheffield Jewish community about how unsafe this Green Party motion makes them feel.

"When our neighbours feel they are under attack – whether that is our Muslim communities in Darnall and Wybourn, or our Jewish community – it is our duty to stand up for them."

She added the group's trust in Sheffield Green Party was "completely broken".

"Council services will be unaffected by this change and we will continue to focus on the issues that matter to our citizens, including tackling poverty, improving our neighbourhoods and creating opportunities for young people," Belbin added.

In response, the Green group accused Labour of "throwing away our joint working agreement".

"Labour's ultimatum was never really about the conduct of Green councillors in Sheffield, who are wholeheartedly committed to this city," the group said in a statement.

"It came from Labour HQ in London and is a really troubling attack on local democracy."

The Green group said it had offered to work through the problem and the door remained open for talks.

"Let us be clear about where we stand. We do not, and will not, conflate Zionism with Judaism, or anti-Zionism with antisemitism," a spokesperson added.

"We are an anti-racist party and we stand with all of Sheffield's communities, as we always have."

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