Labour’s stunning success in this year’s local election has taken some people by surprise. The party’s landslide win – 38 out of 54 seats – is on a par with the first election for the new Brighton and Hove Council back in 1996 when Labour took 54 of 78 seats.
The Green Party seemed to be totally surprised by what hit them. Labour activists much less so, largely because for months they had been picking up on voters’ frustration with local Green Party policies and practices. The Tories seemed resigned to their fate.
To understand the scale of the Greens’ defeat, it is worth looking at the numbers involved. Back in 2019, they topped the poll across the city, securing 35.4 per cent of the vote with Labour on 34.9 per cent and the Tories 22.5 per cent.
The changes in 2023 are big. Labour secured a 12.4 percentage point increase – up to 47.3 per cent – with the Greens down to 24.5 per cent. The Tories dropped to just 16.9 per cent of votes cast.
In the Brighton Pavilion constituency, where the Green vote was strongest, the slump in the party’s fortunes is even more pronounced. Worrying for the current MP Caroline Lucas?
Labour in these elections was able to take votes from both the Greens and the Tories, though most came from the Green Party and they were the biggest losers in terms of seats lost.
They now have just seven councillors, down from 20, while the Tories lost five and have just six councillors left.
The big question behind this switch is why, particularly at a time when the Green Party nationally increased its number of seats with a strong showing? It even took majority control of its first local authority in Mid Suffolk.
It is clear that voters nationally still register concern about climate change – and in Brighton and Hove, arguably more so.
The environment for local voters is a major concern, whether its recycling, refuse collection, pollution, traffic management or the look of the city’s street scene. People are passionate about these problems.
Labour’s success this time round is rooted in these issues. The city now has a large “progressive” majority. In these elections more than 75 per cent voted for what could reasonably be described at progressive centre-left candidates.
In other words, Labour persuaded more electors that it could be trusted with radical solutions to the city’s big issues – it created and attracted an electoral coalition of votes that led to a clear outcome.
It was able to do that because it demonstrated to voters that the cause of the city’s problems was a gridlocked council, hamstrung by being hung and with “no overall control” for 20 years.
At the core of Labours pitch was a pledge to tackle the basic everyday services that we all rely on.
The Greens’ failure was to indulge in vanity projects like the i360 (which owes £48 million to the council) and the Velo Café (£1 million) and projects like the Low-Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) which were clearly a solution in search of a problem.
One refrain that kept being played back to canvassers was this: “If a Green council can’t sort out and improve recycling, they aren’t worth voting for.” It’s an entirely fair point!
The Labour campaign offered a positive vision of a fairer city where the basics get sorted and there is a drive to secure a better future for all.
Brighton and Hove is a special place, rich in culture and rich in opportunity. The Greens have failed for years to harness that and opted instead to play ideological games with public services. This speaks to the lack of vision they had for a more inclusive city.
Labour’s opportunity now is to demonstrate that it can harness the unifying cause of improving local services while having a bigger vision for the future of our city.
As well as Labour’s positive vision, part of what won voters over was the party’s sharp focus on the Greens’ failings.
We now need to turn that focus on to delivering the basics and holding close to our broader vision for a city of limitless possibilities, fairness and opportunities for all of our citizens.
Steve Bassam is a Labour peer, the Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport and former leader of Brighton and Hove Council.
Most have high hopes for Labour and this is what they need to do:
1) Get the basics right, weeds, graffiti, bin collection and good public services.
2) Listen. The Greens fatal error was to be far too influenced by interest groups they sympathised with. Labour needs to understand what the actual residents want.
3) Actually take charge – don’t be lead by Officers, lead and have a vision for the city. Huge changes coming like Valley Gardens Phase 3. Residents and local businesses have said for years parts of this just will not work and is costing the taxpayer far too much. This will now happen on Labour’s watch and if it all goes wrong will impact on them.
On the point of listening, from my experience, this is a systemic challenge within the council in its entirety, and this is something they are still learning to do better.
Although I also think this goes both ways, I’ve been witness to some of the abusive language and aggression that the council do face at times; after a phantasmagoria like that, I’d also be reluctant to repeat that experience!
But Labour can’t do any of those things. The problems they face are the same as the Greens and their roots are financial and contractual. Labour can’t change reality. Nothing will change.
VG3 needs to be put on hold and a thorough independent impact analysis and cost benefit study carried out. Previous paperwork on this was amateur and shabby and typified the Green faux consultation .
The whole project has been based on lies and pie in the sky figures.
VG3 has the potential to be an expensive and detrimental disaster – it is just based to the Greens’ anti-car hatred
“One refrain that kept being played back to canvassers was this: “If a Green council can’t sort out and improve recycling, they aren’t worth voting for.” It’s an entirely fair point!”
No it’s not. The long term contract that ties the city to its present unsatisfactory recycling arrangements was signed by Labour.
Clive, leave aside for the moment how the waste for recycling is disposed of. The Greens couldn’t even run a service that collected our rubbish and recycling properly. The photo in the article was an all-too-familiar sight under the Greens.
Jess, the problems with CityClean date back a long way. They are rooted in the working culture of that organisation and of its union, the GMB, which is a bastion of restrictive practices and all the worst elements of 1970s trade unionism, from everything I’ve heard. Not much chance of Labour grasping that nettle, since the GMB fund them. And I believe I am right in saying that Labour set up CityClean as a sort of arms-length organisation, and it may even have been when Lord Bassam was leader.
Clive,
City clean are and always have been council owned therefore are ‘in house’.
Indeed – Labour are entirely to blame for the long-term Cityclean contract they locked Brighton into. Short of ripping it up and paying a presumably huge exit fee, they’re is nothing they can do and we’ll likely be moaning about the appalling waste situation at the next elections. Still, they can’t be any worse than the Greens!
I agree with Martha that is unlikely to be a quick fix, but putting forward a clear, deterministic action plan will be beneficial for residents to know that things are being done.
Martha
As pointed out elsewhere, there is no contract with CityClean as that is the council’s own refuse division.
I believe the contract is the one with Veolia who do the recycling.
Absolutely. The Greens were constrained by the Labour agreed contract and the unions. Of course they want a better deal for residents but be under no illusio
that it was Labour policies and union collusion that screwed them.
Your answer doesn’t explain why bins were overflowing all the time and not collected.
It doesn’t explain why the greens spent millions on 4 electric bin trucks when the could have ordered 3 times as many normal ones.
It doesn’t explain why they banned commercial bins from the roads which means now most businesses don’t even bother recycling as they don’t have the space to store.
It certainly doesn’t explain viaduct road, possibly the biggest disgrace of a road. Planters unsafely dumped, bins half out in the running lanes. A truly vial entrance to the city
The big question behind this switch is why…
Answer: Failure to consult and listen to the electorate, faulure to meet the needs adn address concerns of the community. Deluded and out of touch.
Except it’s no. The problems Labour face are the same as the Greens and their roots are financial and contractual. Labour can’t change reality. Nothing will change.
Agent provocateur
How many times, BHCC have a legal requirement for rubbish collection and we know this is a big failure.
Contracts: This council has the ability to revoke any contract if the agreed work is not being carried out.
Finances: This council has the ability to review expenditure and curtail non important projects.
I disagree. The greens were putting dumb policy that people didn’t want through at great expense.
COVID ended a good couple of years ago but the council office is still closed. Phone lines are switched off at 12:30.
This is the basic stuff that annoys people.
Like the article said, if a party is called the green party. The first priority should be recycling, and it really is poor in here.
Because of the Labour signed contract – yes.