North Somerset Tories Urge Labour and Lib Dems to Remove Greens Over “Zionism Is Racism” Motion

North Somerset Conservatives have called on the Liberal Democrat leader of North Somerset Council, Cllr Mike Bell, and his Labour deputy, Cllr Catherine Gibbons, to demand that their Green partners publicly reject the Green Party’s “Zionism is Racism” policy, or remove them from the council’s Executive.

The motion was passed at the Green Party conference in Brighton on 4 October by 1,022 votes to 813.

It states that Zionism should be treated as any other form of racism and commits the party to a single Palestinian state across all of historic Palestine. Members also rejected an amendment designed to protect Jewish members who attend synagogues.

Cllr Michael Pryke, Leader of the Conservative Group on North Somerset Council, said:

“Mike Bell has Greens at his Cabinet table and governs North Somerset in partnership with the party that adopted this policy. The Liberal Democrats cannot condemn it in Westminster and share power with its authors in Weston.

“Labour has at last told its councillors to act; Cllr Gibbons must now do so without delay. If North Somerset’s Greens reject the policy, they should say so publicly. If they will not, the partnership must end. Antisemitism is not a matter for local discretion, and it is to the Liberal Democrats’ shame that they have refused to say so.”

The call follows Labour’s announcement yesterday that it will end council coalitions with the Greens wherever local Green groups refuse to disavow the policy, giving them a week to respond.

The Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, told the House of Commons on Wednesday that the policy was antisemitic.

The Liberal Democrats have condemned the motion nationally but declined to instruct their council groups to act, insisting that local arrangements are a matter solely for local councillors.

North Somerset Council is run by a partnership of Liberal Democrats, Labour, Greens and Independents holding 35 of its 50 seats.

The Green group holds eight seats and two places on the ninemember Cabinet.