Westminster City Council is expected to pass a motion declaring that “Zionism is not racism”, following the controversial stance adopted by the Green Party. Labour and Conservative members at the town hall jointly drafted the proposal, which states: “Support for the Jewish people’s right to self-determination is not racist.”
Motion Details and Debate
The motion, due to be debated at full council on Wednesday night, asks chief executive Stuart Love to review the authority’s “equality, diversity and community cohesion training and policies”. The aim is to ensure these do not treat Jewish residents’ support for Jewish self-determination as a form of racism.
The proposal adds: “Criticism of the policies and actions of the Israeli Government is legitimate and is not antisemitic. But declaring Zionism to be racism goes far beyond such criticism: it brands most British Jews as racists because of a part of their identity, and risks leaving Jewish residents feeling unwelcome in public life.” It also states that “the Green Party’s position is incompatible with the council’s duty to foster good relations between communities.”
Background: Green Party Controversy
The Green Party passed a motion at its conference last month describing Zionism as an ideology supporting “an ethnonationalist Jewish state in historic Palestine to the exclusion and/or domination of the non-Jewish population”, and stating that “Zionism is racism”. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has written to the party to “assess its practical implications and potential impact”.
Labour had threatened to stop cooperating with the Greens at almost a dozen local authorities across England over the policy, which Prime Minister Andy Burnham branded “antisemitic”. The Greens responded that the party would “not take lectures” from a Labour government that supplies arms to Israel. Some senior Green members, including former co-leader Adrian Ramsay and first MP Caroline Lucas, also condemned the motion, with Mr Ramsay calling on local parties to renounce it.
Council Leader's Response
Westminster council’s motion resolves to “affirm that Zionism is not racism, and reject the position, adopted by the Green Party at its October 2026 conference”. Tory leader Paul Swaddle said: “It answers the Green Party’s conference decision that Zionism should be treated as any other form of racism. That is a shameful position. It brands most British Jews as racists because of part of their identity, and it comes after the hate marches and attacks the Jewish community has faced in our city. Our council must reject it in the clearest terms.”
