{"id":34549,"date":"2025-11-20T08:00:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T08:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=34549"},"modified":"2025-11-20T08:00:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T08:00:03","slug":"british-jews-turn-to-greens-and-reform-uk-as-support-for-main-parties-drops-judaism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=34549","title":{"rendered":"British Jews turn to Greens and Reform UK as support for main parties drops | Judaism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A new party divide is emerging among British Jews, research has found, with support rising fast for the Greens \u2013 buoyed up by younger and \u201canti-Zionist\u201d Jews \u2013 while older Orthodox men turn to Reform UK as trust in the two main parties \u201ccollapses\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Support for Labour and the Conservatives among British Jews had fallen to 58% by July 2025 from nearly 84% in 2020, according to a report from the Institute of Jewish Policy Research (JPR), which said it was \u201cthe lowest level we\u2019ve ever recorded by some distance\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Labour is typically favoured by more \u201csecular\u201d Jews while the Conservative party is traditionally preferred by more \u201cobservant\u201d Jews.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Meanwhile, nearly one in five British Jews (18%) were backing the Green party by June 2025 \u2013 which the JPR described as \u201cparadoxical\u201d given the party\u2019s stance on Israel, which it labelled an \u201capartheid state\u201d in a vote at its 2024 Manchester conference.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Support for the Green party grew 9% among British Jews between August 2024\u2019s general election and June 2025, outstripping the 1% rise in Green support among the wider electorate over the same period, and predating the leadership of Zack Polanski, who identifies as a \u201cproud\u201d Jew but \u201cnot a Zionist\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The report said the increase in Green party support suggested \u201cfor a significant minority of Jews, domestic priorities and progressive values outweigh foreign policy concerns\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Meanwhile, support for Reform rose among British Jews from 3% in August 2024 to 11% in June 2025. However the increase lagged the 14% rise Reform enjoyed with the wider electorate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cJews remain less likely [than the wider electorate] to vote for Reform UK [11% vs 28%], but more likely to vote for the Green party [18% vs 7%],\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Dr Jonathan Boyd, JPR\u2019s executive director, said: \u201cReform UK is more likely to attract male, older, orthodox, and Zionist Jews; the Greens are more likely to attract younger, unaffiliated and anti-Zionist \u2026[but] it is important to note that it is also part of a larger, more general trend driving the UK population as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Nonetheless, the \u201csurge in Jewish support for Reform \u2013 a party whose rhetoric on immigration and nationalism would typically be expected to alienate minority communities, including Jews\u201d was described as \u201cstriking\u201d by the JPR.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cSignificant parts of the Jewish population may gravitate toward voices promising strength and clarity, regardless of ideological baggage\u201d when mainstream parties were perceived as \u201cweak or hostile\u201d, it added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The report said: \u201cFor the first time in recent British Jewish history, support for the Labour and Conservative parties combined has fallen below 60%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cGiven that this is reflected in wider society too, it is not just a statistical anomaly \u2013 it may signal a structural shift in Jewish political identity.<\/p>\n<p>skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1xjndtj\">Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"dcr-1eusqlu\"><strong>Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-13\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-jzxpee\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cThree forces appear to be driving this fragmentation: the war in Gaza and its polarising effect on Jewish attitudes; rising antisemitism, culminating in the Heaton Park Synagogue terrorist attack; and a broader collapse of trust in mainstream parties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cTogether, these factors are pushing Jews toward parties that offer clarity \u2013 whether through populism or radical progressivism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cIf recent developments persist \u2026 British Jews are likely to become more politically polarised, prompting further internal community tensions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The JPR, which tracks demographic trends, surveyed 11,000 British Jews for the report, titled The end of two-party politics? Emerging changes in the political preferences of British Jews.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">It found that in 2024, Jewish voters were more likely than the general population to vote for the two main parties, with 44% backing Labour, compared with 34% of the electorate as a whole, and 32% voting for Conservative, compared with 24% of the wider electorate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">By June, support for Labour had slumped by 13% among British Jews, compared with a 9% decline with the wider electorate, while Conservative support among British Jews fell by 4%, matching the wider electorate. \u201cLow and stable\u201d support for the Lib Dems has moved from 8% to 9% among British Jews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new party divide is emerging among British Jews, research has found, with support rising fast for the Greens \u2013 buoyed up by younger and \u201canti-Zionist\u201d Jews \u2013 while older Orthodox men turn to Reform UK as trust in the two main parties \u201ccollapses\u201d. Support for Labour and the Conservatives among British Jews had fallen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[336,2573,1601,5437,10277,7461,19623,838,694,1500],"class_list":{"0":"post-34549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-british","9":"tag-drops","10":"tag-greens","11":"tag-jews","12":"tag-judaism","13":"tag-main","14":"tag-parties","15":"tag-reform","16":"tag-support","17":"tag-turn"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}