22OCT

Davey rules out a national Green pact

2 min read

16:26UTC

Ed Davey ruled out a national partnership with the Greens on 19 October, after their Brighton conference passed a motion titled "Zionism is racism".

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Key takeaway

Davey ruled out a national Green partnership but said nothing about shared councils.

Ed Davey ruled out a national partnership with The Greens on 19 October, after the Green Party of England and Wales passed a motion titled "Zionism is racism" by 1,022 votes to 813 at its autumn conference in Brighton, according to Mark Pack, a Liberal Democrat peer⁠¹. Davey wrote: "I am ruling out our party entering into a national partnership with any party that is committed to a dangerous and antisemitic policy like the Green Party's"⁠². Pack reports that the motion declares The Greens an "anti-Zionist party" and calls for a single state "with equal rights for all" in place of Israel. Delegates rejected amendments, including one barring use of the policy to "pressure, proscribe or discipline members based on affiliation with Jewish community institutions".

Zack Polanski, the Green leader beaten by Labour at the 8 October Holborn and St Pancras by-election, did not vote and had called the motion an "unhelpful distraction", according to Jewish News; four of the five Green MPs opposed it. Israel's foreign ministry said Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar had barred Polanski from entering the country. Polanski has since signalled giving the party's leaders more power over policy.

Davey also wrote to the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies of British Jews. His statement covers a "national partnership" and is silent on the councils the two parties run together.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

The Liberal Democrats and the Green Party are two smaller parties in England and Wales. They sometimes cooperate, for example by agreeing not to run against each other in some seats. At its conference, the Green Party voted for a motion saying Zionism, the movement that founded and supports Israel as a Jewish state, is racism. Many Jewish groups say that view is antisemitic. Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, has now said his party will not form a national alliance with The Greens. The Green leader, Zack Polanski, did not vote on the motion.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Members' motions passed at Green conference become party policy, so a leader who opposes a motion, as Polanski did, cannot stop it. His signal about giving leaders more power over policy answers that structural gap.

Parties owe legal duties to members. In October 2020 the Equality and Human Rights Commission found Labour responsible for unlawful harassment and discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, which makes a party's handling of members' complaints a legal matter as well as a political one.

The Liberal Democrats and Greens compete for overlapping voters. A formal partnership would require each to stand down candidates, and Davey's statement removes that option nationally while leaving local deals untouched.

What could happen next?

Consequence
Any repeat of a Unite to Remain-style electoral pact between the two parties at the next general election is off the table nationally.
Long term · Suggested
Risk
Local Liberal Democrat and Green partnerships on councils may come under pressure to end.
Short term · Suggested
Risk
Complaints from Green members linked to Jewish community bodies could test the party's duties under the Equality Act 2010.
Medium term · Suggested

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: The UN General Assembly passed Resolution 3379, declaring Zionism "a form of racism", on 10 November 1975. It revoked the resolution in December 1991 through Resolution 46/86, one of the few times the Assembly has reversed itself.

Counter-parallel: In November 2019 the Liberal Democrats, The Greens and Plaid Cymru formed Unite to Remain and stood aside for each other in 60 seats. That pact was built on one shared cause, Brexit, despite wide policy differences elsewhere.

Consensus view: The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition, adopted by the UK Government in December 2016, lists as an example of antisemitism claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour. Davey's charge rests on that definition, which most UK Jewish community bodies use.

Counter-view: The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, signed by scholars in March 2021, holds that opposing Zionism or backing a single state is not in itself antisemitic. Supporters of the motion read it that way, as opposition to a state ideology rather than to Jews.

Key tension: Whether the motion counts as a foreign-policy stance, as the Jerusalem Declaration would allow, or as discrimination, as the IHRA definition used by Davey and the Board of Deputies of British Jews would hold.

First Reported In

Update #19 · ITV footage drives Reform councillors out

Mark Pack· 22 Oct 2026

Read original →

Different Perspectives

Scottish National Party / John Swinney

Swinney told the SNP conference in Aberdeen on 17 October that Scotland is ready for independence, but set no referendum date, bill or Section 30 request. He launched a new campaign instead and extended the £2 bus fare cap to the north east from April 2027.

Liberal Democrats / Ed Davey

Davey ruled out a national partnership with the Greens on 19 October after their Brighton conference passed a "Zionism is racism" motion, and wrote to two Jewish community bodies. He left untouched the councils the two parties already run together.

Reform UK / Richard Tice

Tice alleged ITV's reporter used false details to get a press-office job and said ITV had "likely broken the law", telling members not to speak to it until it apologises. Reform also opened investigations into members, with some suspensions, so the party is contesting the broadcaster and disciplining councillors at once.

Rhun ap Iorwerth / Welsh Government (Plaid Cymru)

Ap Iorwerth presented six priorities to the Senedd on 22 September without numeric targets or a named partner party, promising to work across the chamber where there is common ground. He says his government will be judged on results.

Michael Marra / Scottish Labour

Marra won the leadership on 19 September, and three days later his 17 MSPs backed Swinney's right-to-decide motion once their child-poverty amendment was written in. He says Scottish Labour's task is to tell voters what it stands for.

Andy Burnham / Labour Party

Burnham told conference in Liverpool on 29 September that Labour's next manifesto will commit to changing the electoral system, and invited every party into a National Commission on Electoral Reform. He has not named a replacement system, and no chair or remit has been published.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.