The Labour Party has walked away from power-sharing deals with the Green Party on 11 local councils, including Sheffield, Warwick and Lewes, after Green members made a motion branding Zionism a form of racism official party policy.
The breakup could slow budgets and policy votes that affect hundreds of thousands of residents. Councillors in the affected areas must now find new coalition partners or try to run minority administrations.
Where the deals stand
Labour said it had local agreements with the Greens in 18 authorities, and 11 of them failed to meet its conditions. In six others, Broadland, Monmouthshire, North Somerset, Rother, West Oxfordshire and West Sussex, the party said its demands were satisfied.
Some of the 11 had already frayed. The Greens said last week they were ending the Lewes alliance by mutual agreement, and Labour said cooperation in Runnymede had stopped earlier. Coventry has no formal deal and will not get one, Labour said, though it will keep working with Greens at the West of England mayoral authority, whose deputy mayor belongs to the Green Party.
Labour's head office had issued an ultimatum to joint councils: local Greens had to disown the motion and press their national leaders to rethink it. Party chair Bridget Phillipson said the policy crossed a line and that Labour would not work with any party backing it at any level of government.
Green members passed the motion in October. It described Zionism as an ideology supporting an ethnonationalist Jewish state in historic Palestine and endorsed a single democratic Palestinian state that would include present-day Israel. Jewish groups and opposition parties condemned it, and Prime Minister Andy Burnham told MPs that month that Labour would not partner with the Greens over a policy he called antisemitic.
Green leader Zack Polanski predicted the decision would backfire on Labour. He has called the motion imperfect but defended its core argument that Israel's treatment of Palestinians is driven by racist ideology. Israel has denied committing genocide in Gaza.
Sheffield coalition unravels
Sheffield, home to 550,000 people, is among the largest councils affected. After the May 2026 elections, 25 Labour and 20 Green councillors formed a joint administration there. On Monday, Labour council leader Fran Belbin said her group would propose on Wednesday that it govern alone as a minority, accusing the local Greens of refusing to stand up for Jewish citizens.
We now feel we are at the end of the road with the joint administration
Fran Belbin, Labour leader of Sheffield City Council
Angela Argenzio, who leads the Sheffield Greens, sent a letter that did not address the motion but insisted her councillors were not antisemitic. She told local Labour members they were taking direction from their national leader rather than responding to local concerns.
Greens hit back
Rachel Millward, the Green Party's co-deputy leader and leader of Wealden Council, accused Burnham of disrupting well-run councils out of fear of Green success. In Warwick, local Greens refused to condemn what they called a democratically decided policy and urged Burnham to let local Labour groups make their own choices.
It is utterly irresponsible to conflate criticism of the actions of the state of Israel with antisemitism.
Rachel Millward, Green Party co-deputy leader
Netty Shepherd, the Green group leader in Havant, called Labour's move performative politics and said foreign policy fell outside a councillor's remit. The Green Party and the Local Government Association Green Group said in a joint statement they were hugely disappointed.
The Liberal Democrats, who also share power with Greens on some councils, have taken a similar line. Party leader Sir Ed Davey last week ruled out a national partnership with the Greens and asked his local leaders in Green coalitions to urge Green councillors to reject the motion and campaign to reverse it.
