“There is a real sense that people are very understandably disillusioned with a political guard, and just feel that successive Labour and Conservative governments have failed them,” he said, though he insists there is a “stark choice” between the offer being presented by the Greens and Farage’s Reform UK.
The four MPs the Greens now have in parliament are “crucial,” he said — and make a difference to the party’s “credibility.”
Labour’s answer to this should involve burnishing its soft-left credentials, according to McTernan.
Labour should be making “hero ministers” of its best communicators from this wing of the party, he said, name-checking Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, and Climate Secretary Ed Miliband. McTernan argued for more focus on some of the popular Labour policies — increased rights for workers and renters, for example, and support for house-building — being overseen by Rayner.
Miliband’s remit — pushing to help decarbonize the U.K. — puts him at the forefront of a massive issue for Green voters. McTernan even believes that there is the potential to peel away Reform voters on this front, despite Farage’s constant slamming of the net-zero agenda. “Working class voters are very committed to taking strong action against the climate crisis,” McTernan argued.
Adrian who?
Labour can take some comfort from the fact the Greens still have a low public profile. YouGov polling last year found that only 2 percent of voters could name Ramsay when shown a picture of him. The Labour MP quoted above took heart from this, pointing out that Britain still has “a very presidential style of government.”