Labour set to end half of council power-sharing agreements with Greens over 'Zionism is racism' policy

Labour is set to end almost half of the party's power-sharing agreements with Green councils as the fallout over the "Zionism is Racism" policy rumbles on.

Last month, all Labour council groups currently in coalition or other power-sharing arrangements with the Greens at council level were asked to write to the party and seek "reassurances" that they condemned the motion.

Local Labour politicians also urged their Green partners to call on the party’s national leaders to denounce it.

Now, Labour is expected to push about half a dozen councils into no overall control or try to form coalitions with other parties after Andy Burnham said the party would have "nothing to do" with the policy, The Telegraph reports.

The Labour Party said the ultimatum would impact 17 councils across England and one in Wales.

Andy Burnham’s party suggested some local Green groups would have met the conditions, allowing further co-operation, while others would not.

GB News understands Labour will reveal the status of all local arrangements later today, after completing all party processes.

The Prime Minister has ruled out any coalition with the Green Party on a national level in future while the policy declaring Zionism a form of racism is in place.

Among the coalitions expected to collapse is Sheffield City Council, where Labour’s ultimatum was accused of being "antisemitism" because it conflated Zionism with Judaism

Meanwhile, Warwick District Council accused Mr Burnham’s party of trying to "undermine Green Party democracy".

Lewes District Council became the first authority to announce its partnership had broken down after Zoe Nicholson, the Green leader of the council, confirmed the alliance had ended because of "unnecessary pressures from outside of the council".

A spokesman from the local Green group on the council in East Sussex issued a statement offering its "wholehearted support for the rights of Jewish and Palestinian people equally", but it did not address Labour’s two demands.

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Green Party leader Zack Polanski has said he would not try to overturn the policy, but did want to amend it “at the first available opportunity”.

He has faced both internal and external criticism of his leadership after members of the Green Party of England and Wales adopted the motion at last month’s party conference in Brighton, a vote Mr Polanski did not take part in.

Former party co-leader Adrian Ramsay on Sunday said he was "deeply uncomfortable" with the motion and said the question now was how Mr Polanski and the party responded.

The MP for Waveney Valley told the BBC: "I think there’s a real crossroads point for the party at the moment."

Last month, Mr Polanski refused to say how Green councils should respond to Mr Burnham's ultimatum.

He then accused the Prime Minister of being "more worried about defending genocide" than about residents’ bin collections.

A Green Party spokesman said: "For the Labour Government to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism is disappointing and wrong. Trying to tell local parties what to do and who they can work with is undemocratic.

"Whilst Labour continue to try to meddle in our internal democracy, arm a genocide and lock up protesting pensioners, we will not take lectures from them."

The Board of Deputies of British Jews condemned the Green Party of England and Wales over the policy, passing a motion by 118 votes to one declaring that "by adopting an antisemitic platform, [it becomes] a racist party".

Board of Deputies President Phil Rosenberg said: "By adopting an antisemitic platform, the Green Party of England and Wales has become a racist party. We will treat it accordingly.

"No political party has the right to tell Jews that a central part of our identity, rooted in thousands of years of history, faith and peoplehood, is racist.

"The Green Party’s policy brands much of our community, including our synagogues and communal organisations, with that slur. It gives prejudice against Jews a political licence.

"The Green Party’s leadership must now take responsibility for reversing this policy and confronting the antisemitism it has legitimised."

A Green spokesman insisted the party does not discriminate against people who hold Zionist views, adding: "The motion passed at our conference sets out political opposition to the ethnic cleansing and displacement of the Palestinian people."