Greens on drugs – as extreme as it seems?

‘No Green madness in our community’: one of the Labour party’s attack ads used in the Gorton and Denton by-election. Photograph: Ujan Natik

The highly-anticipated Gorton and Denton by-election saw the Green party emerge victorious despite being branded by Labour as “extreme and dangerous”. For some, the result has called into question the ruling party’s attacks on the Greens’ policy to decriminalise all drugs. 

The Labour Party’s by-election attack campaign came in the form of targeted adverts to the Gorton and Denton area and a van bearing contentious messages outside polling stations. 

They condemned the Greens’ plans to decriminalise drug consumption with slogans such as “Heroin, Crack Cocaine, Spice. Green Party Says Yes,” “No Green Madness In Our Community,” and “To All Voters Do Not Listen To These People”.

Cllr Zoë Garbett, London Assembly Member and the Greens’ Hackney mayoral candidate, told the Citizen that Labour’s tactics in Gorton and Denton were “dishonest in many ways”.

The Dalston councillor said she would seek to overcome such Labour attacks by responding with what she described as “hope and a plan”.

Scare tactics: a Labour party social media ad that misrepresents Green party drugs policy. Photograph: Facebook

“The fact is that the UK has the highest number of drug deaths in Europe. Stigma and misinformation about drugs and drug policy is causing more harm to people and our communities.

“The Green party’s policy is for legal control and regulation of all drugs to address these issues – our policy is about keeping people safe, and is backed by people who have lost loved ones to drugs, health professionals, and academics”.

Meanwhile, Independent Socialist Group councillor Penny Wrout said that she was “shocked” to see the attack adverts.

“They oversimplified a complex topic, stoking fear and fueling the stigma which people with addiction problems already face”.

Cllr Wrout, who left the Labour party in 2024 over an “absence of progressive thinking”, is doubtful that the rhetoric will win over Hackney residents. 

“A health-centred approach to drug-use stands a far better chance of positive outcomes than a heavy focus on legality”, she said. “I think many people in Hackney would agree with that”.

Similarly, Cllr Garbett believes that such underhanded methods have done nothing but disillusion voters – something she has witnessed on the campaign trail in Hackney herself.

Garbett wants to take a health-centred approach to drugs policy. Photograph: Will Morgan

“It’s actions like this that put so many people off politics, either running for office or voting.

“I’m hearing more and more people who are saying they aren’t going to vote, they feel fed up and let down.”

A former NHS worker, Garbett has long called for a “public health” approach to drugs, urging for “one that includes a safe supply, legal regulation and access to care and policies rooted in evidence”.

When asked if the Hackney Greens were concerned about targeted attacks on drug policy in the forthcoming elections, Garbett said: “We believe voters are smart enough to see through political manipulation.

“We have over 3,000 members in the Hackney Green Party now, and I think they want to be part of something positive and productive, so that’s what we’re offering”.

As it stands, the Greens have a minor administrative presence in Hackney, with just four of the borough’s 57 councillors, paling in comparison to Labour’s 44.

(At a council meeting yesterday evening, Cllr Soraya Adejare (Brownswood ward) crossed the floor, defecting from the Labour party to join the Greens).

Fear-mongering: a Labour party campaign van in Gorton and Denton. Photograph: Ujan Natik

However, as support has surged for the Greens nationwide, so has it in Hackney, with the local party more than quadrupling its membership since January 2025.

Following the by-election result, a number of Labour politicians are keen for the party to change course and reclaim the progressive vote. 

Writing in an op-ed for the Guardian, Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan said: “The vast majority of those who are thinking of voting Green are not extreme… Calling them extreme will only turn more people away”.

“We risk a repeat of losing large Labour strongholds, like London”.

Keir Starmer has insisted in a letter to his MPs following the loss that he will continue to “warn of the risk the Greens pose” to the nation, implying that similar attacks may be deployed to defend London strongholds.

Having held a majority on the council for over 50 years, the Labour party will be determined to prevent the sort of upset they experienced in Gorton and Denton from occurring here in Hackney. 

Whether it will resort to the tactics used in Gorton and Denton in which the Greens were denounced as “extreme and dangerous” remains to be seen.

When asked if it will condemn the Greens’ drug policy in the run-up to the mayoral and council elections, Hackney Labour party declined to comment.

Hackney’s mayoral and council elections will take place on Thursday 7 May 2026.