The Muslim Green Voters Shocked to Discover Their New Party Stands for Legalising Drugs and Prostitution

Muslims who switched to the Green Party in the Gorton and Denton by-election for its stance on Gaza have been shocked to discover their new party stands for legalising drugs and prostitution – and are already regretting their vote. The Telegraph has the story.

The Green Party may be jubilant about its triumph in Gorton and Denton, but some voters are already expressing buyers’ remorse. Waqas Khan, 40, owns Al-Mecca Butchers on Stockport Road, where a “Vote Green” poster hangs in the shop window. He has lived in the constituency for almost 20 years. He and his family had previously been lifelong Labour voters, but all switched to the Greens on Thursday.

Until informed by the Telegraph, however, Khan was unaware of the Greens’ plans to legalise drugs and prostitution and to remove restrictions on pornography. “I checked the manifesto before, but I didn’t see that. It seems they hid those policies,” he says. Khan, who is a Muslim, adds that he would not have voted Green if he had known and would have stuck with Labour. He is particularly concerned about drug policy. “We’ve got families in the area,” he says. “I’ve seen many kids here involved in drugs, selling and using, even the girls. That’s why I’m very disappointed.”

Waqas Khan is not the only local who voted Green only to be surprised by their other policies. Mahwish Kamal, 45, owner of the Himalayan Flowers shop down the road, where a “Vote Hannah Spencer” poster is in the window, says she switched her vote from Labour to Green because of the party’s pro-Gaza stance. “I’m not very happy with Labour about Palestine, and I like what the Greens were saying,” she explains. “That’s why I switched.”

She, too, was surprised to learn about the Green Party’s policies on drugs and prostitution. “Who supports these policies?” she asks when told about them. Informed it was the Greens, she says: “Really?” Like Khan, she adds that she would have voted Labour if she had known about the policies before Thursday.

The two voters are evidence of the jarring disconnect between the Greens’ tactics on the ground in Gorton and Denton, which have focused on Gaza and migration, and their wider policy slate, which includes liberal policies on drugs, prostitution, trans rights, abortion, assisted dying and other social issues that put them at odds with conservative religious beliefs.

Since he announced his candidacy for the party’s leadership last year, Zack Polanski has said he wanted the party to become a broader church.

“I really think the Green Party can appeal to lots of people both in rural and urban constituencies,” he told the Telegraph last year. “I’ll work with anyone who shares my values and wants to take the fight to Reform and challenge [Sir Keir] Starmer.”

On the evidence of their thumping win in Gorton and Denton, he is doing just that. The Green candidate, 34 year-old plumber Hannah Spencer, won with nearly 41% of the vote, 12 points ahead of Reform and pushing Labour into third place on 25%, in an area where it had not lost since 1931.

Turnout was nearly 48%, relatively high by by-election standards and testament to a Green ground campaign that was particularly successful at rallying the large local Muslim population.

Worth reading in full.