Dave Kellaway, Hackney Independent Socialists Collective (HISC)

Your Party members, the HISC and the Greens have all participated in setting up the Hackney Community Alliance slate for the May local elections, which means we will not have socialist independents standing against Green candidates. This coalition makes it more likely that we can defend the seats of current socialist and Green councillors and win more. Nationally, there will be many areas where independent socialist candidates are standing, so it will be interesting to see how many work in coalitions with the Greens and how successful they will be.

Beth Winter, Independent

Alliances between progressive parties are very possible – the growth of the Together Alliance is significant and its launch in Cardiff saw representatives of Green, Plaid and myself as an Independent taking part. This Senedd election, however, has not seen the kind of alliance that we would need under first past the post. There are 6 seats in each of the constituencies, and room therefore for people to stand and promote their different views of the way forward for Wales. But this shouldn’t mean that members of different parties – and no party – can’t unite on issues of concern, from the wars being waged across the Middle East to local issues such as school closures.

Anonymous, Labour

Many areas that the Greens’ campaign in Gorton and Denton promised to tackle were similar to those in the Labour Party’s manifesto, prompting some Labour voters I spoke with to ask whether there could be some sort of alliance/coalition. A number of self-described ‘loyal Labour supporters’ mentioned Labour’s ‘broad church’ and asked what had happened to that. While the focus of Labour canvassing was against Reform, with many members genuinely believing that Labour could win, after the result it’s clear that the squeeze may be more from the left. While a coalition or alliance is not being entertained by the party, many voters would welcome more ‘true Labour’ values – examples given included the NHS not working with the private sector, and taxing the very rich including big businesses.

Jane Marshall, Broxtowe Alliance

The Greens stood down for us in the recent Stapleford South East council by-election [in which our candidate beat Reform], and we passed that solidarity forward by door knocking in Gorton and Denton. We knew how to beat Reform in Broxtowe, we were the stronger party in that area, with campaigning experience, so the Greens stood down, which really helped us win. Now we have to start conversations with them and other progressive independents around future elections and joint campaigns, whether as a joint leaflet, an actual joint ticket, or just standing aside for each other.

We’ve also got the Nottingham People’s Alliance. Six councillors approached us, wanting to leave Labour in Nottingham City and join the Alliance, so that’s under our umbrella, and they’ll hopefully be working with the Greens or Your Party towards joint campaigns and election strategies. I think that’s absolutely the way forward: we’ve got the ground campaign, we’ve got the data, we’ve got decades of experience; the Greens have the national profile and the members and for a large majority we have the same voters. Why would we split the vote? True socialists have got to join forces to beat Reform and this current Labour Party.

Tim Hunt, Green Party

I’m standing for the Green Party, which I only joined recently, given hope by a new leader and my own desire to be more active in combating the rise of the far right. We need to be defeating Reform but in our borough there aren’t really any other progressives to have an alliance with! Labour are not progressive here. 

Jane Marshall

At a council by-election in December 2025 we had a local candidate, quite new to party politics but had been an activist. We took the seat from Labour, beating Reform into second place and Labour into fourth. We positioned ourselves as a positive community force against the Westminster parties and a positive community alternative to Reform. It was a very working class area, with two Reform county councillors, where people on the doorstep said they just wanted an alternative to the mainstream parties, including Labour, who had left them behind and taken their vote for granted, but didn’t know where to go. 

I think voters want to give everybody else a bloody nose, don’t they? The left have got to tap into that. We’ve got the solution, not Reform. Locally, Reform keep saying, we don’t do politics; we’re just businessmen. But they were elected as politicians and they are in the political arena doing politics! They are trying to distance themselves from the stigma currently attached to national politicians, but they are still being led by Farage and Tice. You can’t simply call people racists for voting Reform because people want systemic change, nothing seems to be working for them and Reform offers that alternative hope for many. This is where the left need to step in and show there is a better way, a community alternative way. People want it brought back down to the level where candidates know their areas, know the streets they’ve been in, know their kids have been at the same schools. It sounds parochial, but it really matters. All politics is local.

Tim Hunt, Green Party

If the left doesn’t have a razor-sharp focus on meeting people’s basic needs, the right will step in and give easy answers to complex problems, without doing anything to actually fix them. We have a real chance of winning in Barking, but ultimately it’s about resources. We need boots on the ground and donations so we can print more flyers and pay for social media ads. Reform are backed by crypto billionaires – we need to find a way to compete with that.

Beth Winter, Independent

The left must challenge Reform, and not only by pointing out how damaging their policies will be for Wales – from their position on our language and culture, their attack on workers’ rights and on our public services, to the total lack of local democracy in a company run by millionaires. More than that is needed: we also need to offer people positive alternatives, we need to call for policies that put people, planet and peace before profit, and work to build a nation of compassion and respect, for unity not division.

Anonymous, Labour

Issues around immigration, nationalisation of public services and wealth tax are areas which were raised on the doorstep and in need of more explicit explanation and engagement from a left perspective. The Labour Party can no longer say on the doorstep, that it’s the party to stop Reform. In Gorton and Denton, the response was: ‘That’s what the Greens and other parties are saying’. Only one of them turned out to be right.