Why support for the far-left is growing in UK and what it means for Ukraine
A real "revolution" in the United Kingdom. While Conservatives and Labour are in deep crisis, those previously not taken seriously have gained a chance to move to the forefront.
The niche of Britain’s "sensation party" had been occupied by the right-wing populist Reform UK party (formerly the Brexit Party) of Nigel Farage. This posed significant threats to Ukraine. Although Farage is currently refraining from pro-Russian statements, his past has not disappeared.
However, revolutionary changes are happening not only on the right but also on the left of British politics. We are now seeing British voters gradually painting the country’s political map green.
The Greens in 2026 are no longer a marginal group, but the voice of the intellectual and professional core of the nation, which no longer wants to choose the lesser of two evils.
Read more about the tectonic shift in British politics and whether it will affect London’s support for Ukraine in the article by Oleksandr Kraiev of the Foreign Policy Council "Ukrainian Prism": Britain turns green: why the 'environmentalists' may become the country’s main party and what this changes.
For decades, the British Green Party was perceived as a kind of conscientious addition to the democratic process – a respectable but powerless group of idealists whose electoral success rarely exceeded the statistical margin of 2-5%.
Voting for the Greens was long considered an act of pure protest.
Or a moral gesture without practical political consequences in Britain’s harsh first-past-the-post system.
When ratings of mainstream parties collapsed in early 2026 under pressure from economic stagnation, the Greens turned out to be the only force with a ready systemic alternative extending far beyond environmental issues.
Today’s 20% support is no longer a "cry of the soul", but a rational choice of the middle class and youth who no longer see Labour or Conservatives as capable of responding to the challenges of the new era.
The true architect of this transformation was Zack Polanski, whose election as leader in 2025 marked the party’s final transition to an ideology of "eco-socialism".
His "eco-populism" strategy shifted the focus from abstract carbon emissions to harsh criticism of corporate greed and social inequality. In this new paradigm, environmental protection is inseparably linked with radical redistribution of wealth – from introducing a windfall tax on energy giants to massively expanding tenants' rights.
Instead of being the "conscience" of British politics, under Polanski the party became its "anger".
The paradox of 2026 is that even with stable national support of 20%, the party risks encountering the phenomenon of "wasted votes".
In a majoritarian system, where only the first-place candidate in each constituency wins, evenly spread support across the country is a fatal miscalculation.
Aware of these risks, Polanski’s team shifted to a tactic of "surgical strikes". When the party concentrates an army of volunteers in a single constituency, it can break the resistance of any mainstream machine. The triumphant victory in the Horton and Denton by-election at the beginning of the year proved this works.
Although the Greens support Ukraine’s right to defend itself, they traditionally oppose the Trident nuclear programme and excessive military spending, which may cause some friction with NATO allies.
However, this potential tension is offset by their ambitious vision of a "Green Marshall Plan" for Ukraine. The Greens propose not simply rebuilding destroyed infrastructure, but transforming Ukraine into Europe’s first fully decentralised energy hub.
In this paradigm, Ukraine is seen not only as a defensive outpost, but as a laboratory of the future.