SINCE Labour’s sweeping victory in the 2024 general election, the party’s popularity has seen a catastrophic collapse. Despite promising change, Labour have steadfastly refused to abandon 15 years of Conservative austerity inflicted on the most vulnerable people across the country.

They have made political choices which have placed the interests of society’s wealthiest over most people who have seen the cost of living rise. Polling has consistently indicated Keir Starmer’s dropping popularity, as he repeatedly steers a directionless government from a bad decision to a U-turn.

Labour’s erratic decision-making over the last few months in particular is an obvious sign that they don’t think about the outcomes of policies through strategically and seem to have pandering to the right as their key principle.

This is clearly demonstrated in their attempts to silence public discussion of their collaboration with the Israeli government in its ongoing genocide in Palestine, culminating in their recent proscription of protest group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation.

The Green Party has taken an active stand against Labour’s attempts to crush free speech, supporting brave activists wherever they confront our increasingly authoritarian national government.

Since renewed violence erupted in the Middle East following the events of October 7 2023, the Green Party have unequivocally condemned the actions of the Israeli government and their illegal occupation of Palestinian land, calling for de-escalation and a ceasefire.

While Labour has consistently attempted to underplay and justify the brutal destruction and killing inflicted by the Israeli government, the Greens were the first party in England and Wales to recognise and call out the actions of the Israeli government as genocide within its own party policy.

It is no surprise that the Labour Party has worked tirelessly to defend the Israeli government, given their record of donations. In 2024, OpenDemocracy revealed that the party’s largest ever donation of £4 million came from Quadrature Capital, a hedge fund that owned £121m of shares in companies that profit from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Also in 2024, Declassified UK reported that over half of the party’s cabinet members had received money from one such group, including David Lammy, the foreign secretary, Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, and Starmer himself.

The Labour government have stuck by their decision to sell weapons to the Israeli government and be complicit in allowing the Israeli government to continue their slaughter of innocent civilians, putting financial gain over the lives of Palestinians.

In contrast, the Green Party refuses to take money from any companies with links to the arms trade so that the party and its policymaking remain under the control of its members rather than in hock to wealthy corporate lobbyists.

Since quadrupling the number of Green MPs following last year’s general election, the Green Party has challenged this lobbying in Parliament. Recently, Brighton Pavilion MP Sian Berry published a full list of her meetings with campaigners and lobbyists over the last year, urging all other MPs to do the same. This action is part of a greater campaign to reform the Lobbying Act, which currently allows MPs to conceal their own meetings from the public.

There is no doubt that the Labour Party’s backroom meetings with lobbyists shaped its recent decision to proscribe the protest group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation following their vandalism of two planes at RAF Brize Norton.

Unsurprisingly, this move was pushed forward by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, one of the many Labour cabinet members to have received donations from lobbyists for the Israeli government. In recent weeks, Cooper has defended the decision, arguing that the recent mass arrest of over 500 protesters outside Parliament is justified by the “violent attacks” committed by the group.

Conveniently, she said that she was unable to give any further information because of “court restrictions.” Until Cooper can give a shred of proof for her claims, I think it’s fair to say that she’s peddling misinformation to justify her government’s suppression of criticism and the basic democratic right to protest.

The Green Party were the only party to take an active stand against the proscription of Palestine Action in Parliament, with all four Green MPs voting against it, while the Conservatives and Reform unsurprisingly backed Labour’s proposal. Despite their claims to support peaceful protest, the Liberal Democrats took the cowardly way out by deciding not to partake in voting altogether.

On September 6, protesters organised by Defend Our Juries will once again meet at Parliament Square to demonstrate against the government’s suppression of people standing up for the rights of Palestinians.

We will undoubtedly see more arrests, as Labour works to crush democratic dissent, and once again, we are likely to see politicians smearing those who have bravely stood up for freedom of expression.

The Green Party will continue to fight for the right to protest, denouncing the dishonest politicians who are more interested in protecting the interests of the corporate lobbyists that fund them than those of their constituents. Freedom of speech is sacrosanct and must be guarded at all costs.