Green councillor defects to Tories and Welsh deputy quits as Labour rules out working with Greens over 'Zionism is racism' vote
From the Newshound archive · first published 6 October 2026 · last updated 7 October 2026.
Green Party campaigners in Holborn, whose party faces a report to the EHRC by eighteen Labour MPs over conference chants of "Zionists are not welcome here.Minh Quang Pham (left), the al-Qaeda terrorist, and Lubna Speitan (right), the Green Party activist, whose party leader Kemi Badenoch says she supports Israel and British Jews but is uncertain what identifying as a…
Two Green councillors have resigned over their party's 'Zionism is racism' conference vote, with Daniel Potter defecting to the Conservatives and Kieran Dams, 23, sitting as an independent. Phil Davies, the Welsh Greens' former deputy leader, also quit after seven years, calling the motion "idiotic" and "imperialistic". Labour Party Chair Bridget Phillipson condemned the vote as "fundamentally wrong", while senior Labour figures said cooperation with the Greens was now very unlikely. Kemi Badenoch declared the party "full of antisemites" and said she was "embarrassed" by its conference decision.
Potter, elected in 2023 to Babergh District Council in Suffolk, said the vote left many Greens "feeling politically homeless" and praised Badenoch's leadership.
Labour figures are debating whether to formally rule out any future coalition with the Greens, with a Jewish Labour Movement source saying Labour should "absolutely" do so.
Davies hopes Welsh Greens will vote to split from the England party at a conference next month, and says leader Anthony Slaughter shares his concerns.
