In a rare cross-party alignment between traditionally opposing political blocs at the local governance level, Conservative and Labour representatives on Westminster City Council have co-drafted a joint motion scheduled for a full chamber vote on Wednesday evening, formally asserting that “Zionism is not racism”. The legislative push is a direct, targeted response to a Green Party motion that secured passage across the council last month, which classified Zionism as a racist ideology. The text of the cross-party motion frames the widely accepted mainstream definition of Zionism as the principle that Jewish communities hold an inherent legal and cultural right to national self-determination within their historical ancestral homeland. It further notes that while British Jewish populations hold a diverse spectrum of stances on Zionism, the modern state of Israel, and its current governing administration, the ideology forms a core component of collective identity for a large majority of Jewish residents across the UK. The motion, formally tabled by Conservative councillor Hannah Galley and seconded by Labour councillor David Boothroyd, explicitly draws on the widely debated International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, citing the claim that Israel’s foundational existence constitutes a racist endeavour as a documented example of antisemitic conduct under that framework. Notably, the lead author of the IHRA definition publicly stated just one week prior that the document had become “poisoned” in contemporary political use, alleging that the vast majority of institutions now deploy it specifically to censor and penalise pro-Palestinian advocacy speech. The text of the joint motion further enshrines the principle that advocacy for Jewish national self-determination cannot be classified as racist, and affirms that Jewish communities hold the exact same inalienable right to collective national self-determination as every other global ethnic and cultural group. It also mandates a mandatory six-month formal review of all the council’s existing equality, diversity, and community cohesion training programmes and internal policies, to ensure full alignment with the IHRA definition. However, the proposed legislation faces significant legal pushback: a formal legal notice submitted to the council this week by independent political consultant Gary Spedding, and reviewed by Middle East Eye, warns that passing the motion in its current draft form would place the local authority in direct violation of core statutory duties outlined in Section 149 of the 2010 Equality Act. The notice specifies that the policy would generate severe adverse impacts on Westminster’s Palestinian, British-Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim resident populations, all of whom hold legally protected characteristics tied to race, nationality, and religious belief. Under existing UK law, all public bodies are legally required to eliminate all forms of unlawful discrimination, and actively foster constructive, harmonious relations between communities with different protected characteristics. The legal submission argues that for a local governing body to formally and unconditionally absolve Zionism of any potential discriminatory dimension directly erases and silences the lived experiences of thousands of local Palestinian constituents, for whom the historical and ongoing implementation of Zionist policies is inextricably tied to generations of displacement, statelessness, and systemic structural inequality. The document adds that this dynamic risks creating an exclusionary public civic space that could qualify as unlawful harassment under Section 26 of the Equality Act, while the formal adoption of the IHRA definition in this context would pre-emptively bar legitimate public scrutiny of political stances on Zionism, suppressing lawful, good-faith political discourse. Middle East Eye reached out to Westminster City Council for an official statement on both the upcoming vote and the submitted legal warning, but received no response prior to the time of publication. The developments in Westminster form part of a much wider national political rift across UK local government: just one week earlier, the national Labour Party announced it would formally terminate all collaborative governing agreements with the Green Party across 11 local councils in England, in direct retaliation for the Greens’ recent adoption of the policy framing Zionism as a racist ideology. The Green Party became the first major national UK political party to formalise this stance after a vote of its membership at the October annual party conference, where members also backed a policy of advocating for a single, unified democratic Palestinian state with full equal rights for all ethnic and religious communities, rejecting the longstanding mainstream two-state solution framework. The 11 councils where cross-party cooperation will be suspended include Arun, Derbyshire Dales, Havant, Lewes, Sheffield, Stafford, Warwick, Wealden, West Devon and West Suffolk. Labour Party chair Bridget Phillipson stated that the Green Party’s formal position on Zionism “crosses an unacceptable line”, and that the party could no longer maintain working partnerships with any political organisation that endorses the policy, at any tier of local or national government. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham also publicly denounced the Green Party’s original policy as antisemitic when it was first passed last month. In response, Green Party leadership pushed back sharply, stating that it would refuse to accept moral lectures from a national government that continues to supply military weapons to the state of Israel. Green Party deputy leader Zack Polanski, who identifies as Jewish, stated that Labour’s decision to sever cross-party collaboration would ultimately backfire electorally, noting that the Green Party’s core policy priorities include taxing ultra-high net worth billionaires, delivering urgent action to mitigate the global climate crisis, and ending arms sales that enable what the party describes as ongoing genocide in Gaza. He added that the Labour Party’s current local governing strategy would disrupt essential public local services, while effectively enshrining support for that military campaign at the local council level.
Joint Tory-Labour motion that ‘Zionism is not racism’ goes to vote at Westminster council
