Labour leader defends Greens partnership amid anti-Zionism controversy

Twm Owen, Local Democracy Reporter

A council power-sharing deal between Labour and the Green Party will continue despite a row over the Greens’ anti-Zionist stance.

Monmouthshire County Council’s Labour leader Mary Ann Brocklesby said Green Party councillor Ian Chandler, who sits in her cabinet, has already publicly explained his opposition to the motion adopted at the Green Party’s autumn conference.

The party’s stance, that set out the its opposition to Zionism, defined as an “ethnonationalist political project” and which states anti-Zionism “should not be equated with antisemitism”, has been criticised by political opponents.

Labour has told its councillors to end power sharing arrangements with the Green Party unless its councillors disown the policy while the leader of the Conservative opposition on Monmouthshire council called for Cllr Brocklesby to “terminate” the partnership with Cllr Chandler.

Conservative group leader Richard John had written to Cllr Brocklesby after Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the House of Commons his party would have “nothing to do with” the Green Party’s stance which he called “wrong” and “antisemitic”.

He’d also said Labour couldn’t support a partnership with a party that had adopted the stance.

In his letter the Mitchell Troy and Trellech councillor claimed Cllr Brocklesby couldn’t rely on a partnership with the Green Party while condemning antisemitism due to the motion.

He stated: “In light of your party leader’s ruling that partnerships with the Greens are unacceptable, I call on you to terminate Labour’s political arrangement with the Green Party in Monmouthshire, and remove Green Party representation from your cabinet.”

Opposition to motion

In her reply to the Conservative group leader Cllr Brockelsby said: “You will, I am confident, be much reassured to note that our Green Party colleague Ian Chandler is on public record explaining his opposition to this motion.”

Cllr Chandler, who represents Llantilio Crossenny, had published an article on the Substack platform the day after the anti-Zionism motion was passed in which he explained how he has worked in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Cllr Chandler wrote while they would “unequivocally” describe “the form of Zionism” that has resulted in the forced displacement of Palestinians and their unequal treatment as “racist” the councillor said they couldn’t support the motion passed by their party and also called antisemitism “a real and persistent cancer in our society”.

Cllr Chandler, who is the sole Green Party member on Monmouthshire council has sat in a Green/Independent group with one other councillor, since forming a coalition with the minority Labour administration at County Hall in May 2023.

Labour leads the 46 member council but its membership has reduced to 19, which is the same number as the Conservative opposition, while there are six councillors in the Independent Group.

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