Green co-leader hits out at Jeremy Corbyn for 'progressive alliance' snub
2 min read
Green co-leader Jonathan Bartley today condemned Jeremy Corbyn for refusing to work together at the general election and said the result “hurt”.
Mr Bartley told his party’s annual conference that Theresa May might not have won the election if Labour had been willing to play ball with the offer of a ‘progressive alliance’.
The Greens had pitched a plan to stand candidates down at the June election to avoid splitting the vote in a bid to topple Conservative MPs.
But Labour rejected the offer and left the Green party unilaterally refusing to stand candidates in some 22 seats. They also effectively sent campaigners to canvass for their opponents.
The Greens saw their vote share drop by 2.3% in the end, with almost 60% of support being sucked up by the Labour party.
“Maybe if the other parties had been willing to work with us Theresa May wouldn’t be sitting in No 10 today,” Mr Bartley told the Green party annual conference in Harrogate today.
“22 local green parties bravely stood aside to change British politics; many more bravely stood as candidates to give our green vision a voice.
“This was never going to be an easy election. It was always going to be about the two biggest parties and we suffered.”
He added: “We suffered at the hands of the two party system. It hurt. And I know many of us still feel that hurt. I do.”
Elsewhere, the former Conservative activist - who worked on John Major’s leadership campaign against John Redwood - said the Tory party had “rot at its core”.
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