Is the Rise of the Green Party a Sufficient Challenge to Reform in the UK?

Amity Saunders, Bsc Sociology

Over the past two years, the UK has witnessed the rapid rise of the Reform Party, dominating headlines, gaining a reported membership of 267,000 and appearing at the top of nearly every UK poll. Spearheaded by the populist leader Nigel Farage, who has managed to influence the UK public into far-right politics. During the last year, support for the main political parties - Labour and Conservative has faced a huge decrease, hollowing out the political centre and creating a sharper contrast between Reform and one of the fastest growing left-wing parties - The Green Party.

The Green Party has faced a 45% increase in members since the newly elected leader, - Zack Polanski. He has adopted an anti-establishment sentiment, connecting environmental issues with economic and political injustices. At the same time, he borrows communication tactics that echo elements of Reform populist style, developing his own left-wing populism. This raises the central question of whether Polanski and his party are a sufficient enough challenge to withstand the far-right Reform.

Political Strategy

The Green Party is appearingly countering Reform’s populism with their own form of left-wing  populism. Far right populism has gained support in the West, often characterised by xenophobia, racism and the exclusion of already the most marginalized groups in society, in this case, immigrants. These tactics orchestrate moral panics as a way to divert people’s attention from the structural causes of their grievances - austerity. The Green Party attempts to challenge this by mobilizing the masses against the system itself, rather than scapegoated communities.

The Green Party strategy echoes the arguments of the 1970s sociologist, Stuart Hall, in his analysis of Thatcherism. He argues that Thatcher succeeded not only by winning elections but changing what it means to be English and that is why she is so powerful. Hall warns that as long as the left tries to mimic right-wing narratives, the right will continue to win. As “why vote for the copy than the original,” Instead he insists that the left must create a different project that promises a different world and a different change, exactly what the Green Party is doing (Hall 1998).  The Green Party are promising to tax the wealthy, invest in public services and the nationalisation of key services. For Hall to win political power, it is not just about winning elections but to change people’s entire world view.

This strategy positions the Greens as a genuine counter-force to Reform. Rather than mirroring their narratives, they are redefining the political common sense that Reform depends on.

Demographic

The demographics for both Green Party and Reform differ strikingly, presenting clear challenges when swaying voters. Reform appeals both to the extremely wealthy as their economic policies of low tax and deregulation benefit them, but also to the extremely poor, capitalising off their own grievances. 38% of Reform voters fall into this group (Independent 2025). Reform appeals to the working class as it provides fear-based explanations for their material conditions, giving working-class voters a narrative that feels emotionally intuitive and politically transformative.

Sociologist Paul Gilroy argues that austerity has generated a politics of nationalistic resentment, producing anxieties about identity, belonging and immigration. These groups have feelings of loss, particularly around national identity, which has been redirected toward marginalised groups, especially immigrants, who are blamed for wider structural issues caused by austerity (Hall 1998). The Reform party understand they can connect to these voters through capitalising on this narrative, using their impoverishment to gain influence.

This raises the problem of how the Green Party can reach these same voters. 

How can they connect to these working class voters? The Green Party’s support base consists of the younger, middle class, educated population, framed as the ‘urban progressive’. While the Greens employ eco-populism, they still struggle to connect with working-class voters who feel abandoned by mainstream politics, they need to push through Farage’s anti-politics tactic in order to gain votes in the next general election. Additionally, young voters who are central to the Greens’ appeal vote significantly less, with fewer than half of 18–24-year-olds participating in the last election (YouGov 2024). This leaves the Greens in a weak position. Even if they offer more accurate explanations for people’s material conditions, they risk appearing detached from everyday struggles. This demographic gulf poses a fundamental barrier to the Greens becoming a sufficient challenge to Reform’s working-class mobilisation.

Political Climate

With the rise of far-right politics around the world, it raises the question of whether we live in a political climate where the left can realistically win? The ascent of the Reform Party shall not be viewed in isolation but as a longer trajectory of the far-right moving from the margins to the mainstream. Across the UK and the wider West, political discourse has shifted from centre-left to centre-right, with even ostensibly “left” parties adopting anti-immigrant narratives. Such as Keir Starmer’s warning that the UK will become ‘an island of strangers’ echoes the same anxieties that Reform has produced. Similarly, the growth of MAGA politics in the US, which routinely labels immigrants as ‘illegal aliens’ with tens of thousands of deportations per month, demonstrates how deep these narratives have become.

These such discourses build existing hegemonic views in society, and reproduce the worldview of those in power, making them appear natural, commonsensical, and increasingly extreme. Drawing on Gramsci, far-right movements flourish in an environment like this as they intensify already existing ‘common sense’ views tied to identity, security and national decline (Gramsci 1971). This raises a fundamental issue of how the political conditions of contemporary Britain actively enable the rise of parties like Reform while constraining the possibility of a transformative left alternative. A left-wing project such as the Green Party must therefore construct a counter-hegemonic project, a reorganisation of the political imagination itself. Reform, by contrast, merely intensifies narratives that are already culturally and institutionally embedded.

Conclusion

The Green Party consequently faces a huge challenge in positioning itself as a viable contender for the next election. While its strategic use of left-wing populism offers a compelling ideological alternative, it is confronted by structural barriers through an aging, rural electorate, widespread far-right discourse and a political environment shaped by austerity and nationalistic resentment.

They need to appeal to the masses by challenging the dominant narratives and convince others that wealth redistribution, taxing the wealthy and the funding of public services will offer genuine solutions rather than a continuation of familiar policies that favour the wealthy.

Reform, in contrast, thrives on an existing political common sense shaped by austerity, insecurity, and a nationalistic resentment that has become embedded across Western democracies. Its narratives resonate with working-class voters and are reinforced by mainstream political discourse, creating an ideological terrain that favours fear-based, exclusionary politics. Whereas the Green Party is attempting at creating a counter-hegemonic project, aimed at mobilizing off of already left wing people but also attempting to challenge the worldview of the masses. However, their support base is the young, urban, progressive, and often disengaged from electoral participation, which limits their capacity to mobilise on the same scale. The Greens are challenging this terrain, but they are doing so from a disadvantaged position, against a system that suppresses transformative politics while amplifying reactionary ones.

Ultimately, the Green Party is building a substantive movement to counter Reform but whether it is sufficient enough to win the next election is unknown, within an environment of far right rhetoric and growing austerity, the Green Party needs to find a way to connect with the UK population, influencing their support. But with 4 years left till the next election, the political landscape may shift considerably, making it difficult to determine the Green’s success. 

Sources

1. Gramsci, A. (1971) Prison Notebooks. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.

2. Hall, S. (1988) The Hard Road to Renewal : Thatcherism and the Crisis of the Left. London, England: Verso Books.

3. McDonnell, A. (2024) How Britain voted in the 2024 general election, Yougov.co.uk. YouGov. Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/49978-how-britain-voted-in-the-2024-general-election (Accessed: November 27, 2025).

4. Whiteley, P. (2025) “Survey reveals the exact demographics behind Reform’s growing support,” Independent, 5 June. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/reform-uk-voting-intentions-survey-b2764536.html (Accessed: November 27, 2025).