Britain’s politics is changing at a dramatic rate, with the traditional centrist parties being shoved aside in favour of those from the extremes. In Hastings, a town close to the 1066 battlefield where the course of England’s history was forever changed, it might also now witness a political scrap that could define the UK’s immediate future.
Between the hard-right Reform UK and hard-left Greens, the centre parties of Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats face an electoral meltdown. And it is not just the East Sussex seaside town that could witness a political bloodbath. Polling across the country suggests that out of the 5,000 seats up for election on Thursday, 1,600 could go to Reform and 700 to the Greens, a vast change from just a handful in the previous election.
With Wales and Scotland likely to have nationalist parties in control, Britain could look very politically different in one week’s time.
Green power
Of the 16 seats in the Hastings vote, none of the traditional parties will win a single one, local polls suggest. That the Greens might win big in Hastings signifies the party’s metamorphosis from sluggish single-digits in the polls to contemplating majority rule.
It has been electrified by the Manchester by-election two months ago when it swept to victory in a safe Labour seat, with its strident pro-Palestine stance attracting a strong Muslim vote. Momentum is everything in politics and judging by the spirit on a blustery but sunny day in Hastings on Thursday, the party is charging.
“The Green Party has hope and a plan and that will win every single time,” its populist leader Zack Polanski told an enraptured crowd of old and young supporters. “It is time for a Green majority.”
In terms of modern political warfare, the words were delivered through a sound system just about strong enough to shield it against the megaphone a hard-right supporter, accompanied by a St George’s flag, used in an attempt to blunt his words.
“We stand for peace and love,” Mr Polanski said, undeterred. “Shame on you,” the right winger retorted, along with the odd shout of “communists” and other terms.
The Greens are certainly in the hard-left camp and their leader, referencing the illegal crossings of migrants over the breaking waves of the Channel a few metres away, had no issue in attacking rich capitalists. “Our problems are not coming here by small boat, our problems are flying above us in private jets,” he said to cheers from the crowd. “Our problems come from billionaires and likes of Nigel Farage and Reform. We say, ‘Not in Hastings’.”
Potholes and polarisation
But Reform will very much be present in Hastings, as it will across Britain, with the strong possibility that it will take over more than 10 councils.
That is important, as a strong local electoral base boosts a party in a general election and Reform still lead national polls. That suggests it might be the biggest party at the next national poll, in about 2029.
To achieve that, Reform is relying on its growing army of footsoldiers banging on doors in places including Hastings, giving solutions to local residents’ biggest gripe: potholes. “We filled 16 along this road,” said East Sussex local councillor Aidan Fisher. But a woman still confronted him, saying the potholes quickly return, usually after heavy rain, and others remain.
Mr Fisher, a financial adviser who joined Reform about a year ago, actually lamented the polarisation entering the UK that so divides US politics. On this occasion he was not chased down the street by a livid Green voter, as his fellow Reform candidates have been, and says the assumptions over the party’s unrelenting stance on immigration leads to frequent accusations of racism.
“That saddens me, because there's an awful lot of anger in the streets. I'm really concerned about politics, generally, where no one's accepting of anyone else's ideas like in the US,” he said. “I think it's incumbent upon all political people to try and dial that down.”
The defection from the traditional parties, he argues, is disillusionment caused by their failure to listen. “There's a big disconnect between the people who have been governing us, the Metro elite in London and people out in the counties, where you have fishermen, farmers and local business all hit by taxes," he said.
“People feel they've been going backwards, but Reform will introduce commonsense policies to try and stop the erosion of community and create growth.”
On immigration, Mr Fisher does not believe in America’s current aggressive policy. Instead he argued that if illegal immigrants are denied benefits or access to the NHS “you take away the causality”.
When prodded on the Green’s generous stance on immigration, the Reform politician criticised his opponents' “open border” policy. “If that were to happen we would run out of money very, very quickly," he added.
Migrants welcome
Usually when fringe parties approach power they ditch eye-catching but unattainable polices – Reform’s taxation giveaway in its last manifesto has been quietly dropped. So does that mean the Green’s more eccentric ideas will go the same way?
Becca Horn, one of their councillors in Hastings, scoffs at the media’s portrayal that the party wants to get rid of capitalism, among its more outlandish policies as “clickbait”.
The party wants to move “beyond capitalism”, create a republic without any power in the royal family, get rid of the nuclear deterrent and potentially leave Nato – but certainly rejoin the EU.
And on immigration? “We need skilled workers to build our homes,” Ms Horn said. She then contended that even those crossing the Channel illegally on small boats “only represent 5 per cent of our total immigration”.
“We need immigration for our economy as our population growth is plateauing in this country which is bad news for the economy," she added. "Reform, of course, won't tell you that.”
She argues for “safe and legal routes” for migrants, but also that “we need to pull our weight when it comes to taking in refugees who are fleeing war torn countries or climate devastation”.
Indeed, the Greens of Hastings might be the shape of local politics for the future, having, in a minority council, managed to work alliances with both Labour and the Conservatives to push through policies. “We're not queasy about working with them,” she said.
It is, Ms Horn said with a smile, the media that likes “that divisiveness ... it feeds the machine”.
The reality is that the Green Party’s Hastings conquest might be complete come May 7, with a majority in place. And like the Norman victory 1,000 years ago, that could well herald a dramatic political change in Britain.
