Green Party gains third Labour defection in January alone

Third Labour councillor defects to the Green Party in January alone

by HG

9 January 2026

in News, UK

Reading Time: 2 mins read

A Hertfordshire Labour councillor has defected to the Green Party. This brings the total number of defections since September to 19.

Exclusive: Third Labour councillor defects to the Green Party in January alone – bringing the total of Labour defections to 19 since Zack became leader in September.

Lucy Musk, who represents Haldens ward in Welwyn Hatfield, has joined the Green Party from Labour. pic.twitter.com/sAywEbp9g6

— Green Elects (@GrnElects) January 9, 2026

Lucy Musk represents the Haldens Ward in Welwyn Hatfield, and takes the number of councillors that have defected to the Green Party in January alone up to three.

Only last month, five North London councillors defected from Labour to the Greens, claiming Starmer’s Labour was:

no longer serving the principles it once championed.

Starmer’s decision to follow Reform UK with steps to the right has led to several similar defections across the UK.

Zack, you’ve normalised hope again, which is something the UK has desperately needed after the abysmal @Conservatives and now @UKLabour governments, and the looming threat of Farage and Reform.

Under your leadership, I expect @TheGreenParty to go from strength to strength!

— Simon Turkas Photography 📷 (@SimonTurkas) October 22, 2025

Zack Polanski is normalising hope — which many of us haven’t felt since 2019. Now, slowly but surely, Labour councillors are dropping like flies — or at least defecting to a party that still has values.

Feature image via HG

Tags: Green party Labour Party

Comments 1

Red Star2000 says:

5 months ago

“Zack Polanski is normalising hope — which many of us haven’t felt since 2019. Now, slowly but surely, Labour councillors are dropping like flies — or at least defecting to a party that still has values.”

But did you ever stop to ask yourself about the values of the defecting Labour candidates ? These are people who – whatever they might say now – have been fully aware for years of what Starmer is, and yet seem to have been quite happy to go along with it.

I suspect their sudden conversion to Green policies have more to do with the realisation that being a Labour candidate is now likely to be fatal, and so they’re jumping ship. Political oportunism is the name of the game.