𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The traditional political order is supposedly reasserting itself. After the Tories and Labour held successful conferences – in stark contrast to the explosive controversies that engulfed the Greens and Reform UK – there is deepening consensus that the old two-party system is coming back. But such a claim rests on the flimsiest of grounds.

Both Labour and the Conservatives remain badly tainted by their recent failures in office, and their approval ratings are still at historic lows. Nor should Reform UK’s decline be exaggerated, given that in most opinion polls they are in second place, narrowly behind Labour. Only last month, in a municipal by-election at Bassetlaw Council they crushed the Tories, whose vote collapsed by 37%. A week earlier, in a council by-election in North-East Derbyshire, Reform inflicted a similar humiliation on Labour, driving down its vote by 32%.

The Liberal Democrats, with their large bloc of 72 MPS, will also be a powerful force at the next election thanks to tactical voting, especially in affluent areas of southern England. But in the inner cities, a very different challenge could emerge, one that may dramatically change the nature of our politics. This is the potential alliance on the left between the Greens and militant Islam.

There are already signs that such a coalition is coming into existence in disaffected pockets of urban Britain. The most obvious is the transformation of the Greens from a movement concerned about the environment into an ugly, sectarian organisation fixated by Gaza and riddled with antisemitism. Such an outfit should have no place in our liberal democracy, but the sad truth is that the hatred of Israel is now so pervasive in modern Britain that crude anti-Jewish prejudice, dressed up as concern for Palestinian, appeals to parts of our electorate in a way that would have been unthinkable only a few decades ago.

Under the leadership of Zack Polanski, the Greens have become the political home for those embittered, keffiyeh-clad fanatics who flocked into Labour under Jeremy Corbyn’s banner before he was kicked out of the party by Sir Keir Starmer.

These blinkered militants are natural ideological allies of radical Islamists, whose entry into the Green party has not only vastly increased its membership to more than 225,000 but has also made antisemitism a central theme of its programme, as highlighted in its recent adoption of the shameful motion that described Zionism as racism.

The Greens’ eager embrace of Islam is embodied by the party’s deputy leader Mothin Ali, who shouted “Allahu Akbar” when he was elected to Leeds City Council in 2024, adding that his victory was a “win for the people of Gaza”.

Across Britain, Muslims are abandoning their long-standing allegiance to Labour. The surge in Green support is one consequence. Another is the rise of a new band of independent, pro-Palestinian Muslim politicians. At the last General Election, five such MPs were elected, while, of 467 Muslim local councillors in England, 91 are independents.

These numbers are bound to grow, particularly if there are electoral pacts between the far-left Greens and politicised Islam. After all, these movements have much in common. In addition to their loathing for Zionism and Western civilisation, they are inclined to be authoritarian, rigid about doctrine, intolerant, and prone to victimhood.

Damningly, the notorious misogyny of fundamentalist Islam is also found on the British far-left. In recent years, the Socialist Workers Party has been torn apart allegations of rape and exploitaton of female members by leading figures.

The plot of the great French novel Submission by Michel Houellbecq involves an Islamic party that comes to power with the support of the Socialists. Will this be a case of British life imitating Gallic art?