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The Green party is offering “simple solutions to complex problems” and making “undeliverable” promises to voters ahead of the next election that could leave them disappointed, the prime minister’s chief secretary has said.
Darren Jones, one of Keir Starmer’s most powerful ministers, said the resurgent Greens were “a bit like the populist left version of the populist right” of Reform UK, and that both were in danger of letting down voters.
Labour has fallen to record lows in the polls, losing support to parties on its progressive wing as well as to Reform. A YouGov poll this week put it just four points ahead of the Greens, which were on 16%, more than double the 6.7% share the party won at the last election.
As Starmer returns from the Cop30 climate summit in Brazil, his government has been divided over how loudly to champion its green agenda given concerns about rising energy bills and increasingly unified opposition on the right to net zero targets.
Jones insisted Labour was not rowing back from its green promises. “I can reassure people that’s not the case,” he said, citing the government’s funding of renewables and insulation.
“Let’s be honest, a few years ago, there was a global consensus around net zero. There’s not now. So it’s contested space, but Britain continues to lean into that debate.”
He said that Labour had to prove to people that it was a “modern party facing the future, delivering for modern Britain” to win back progressive voters, a shift in its previous strategy of pitching to the right to prevent them going to Reform.
He said he understood how younger Britons, in particular, might feel the economic system was not delivering for them, but that they would be “disappointed” by the failure of populist parties including the Greens – whom he beat into second place in his Bristol North West seat.
“[The Greens] are a credible player now in the five-party system that we have right now, based on polling,” he said.
“It’s their responsibility to explain to people how they would actually choose what to do if they were in government, as opposed to just promising things that are undeliverable.
“My criticism of them, much like with Reform, is that they’re offering simple solutions to complex problems and that’s failing people. They’re a bit like the populist left version of the populist right.
“We have to make the case for being a new, modern party of the future, and not just part of the old status quo. What I don’t want is young people, in particular, thinking: ‘I want something different to the current economic circumstances and therefore I’m going to vote for a party that is new.’
“They will be disappointed, because they’re not going to get the change they want by voting for the populist left or the populist right.”
Jones said Labour could not count on progressive voters coming back to them at the next election to keep out Nigel Farage, even though recent polling suggests they could vote tactically. “I don’t assume that at all. We have to work hard to win every single vote.”
He argued the next election would be a fight between Labour and Reform, which presented a “very grave” decision for the country.
“We’ve never been in a position where you could go down that populist right path, and we all have an obligation across centre and progressive politics to say that we don’t want that here.”
He admitted that the prospect of Labour failure paving the way for a Farage-led government kept him up at night. “Yes, because we can’t allow that to happen and we won’t allow that to happen.”
Before Rachel Reeves’s budget later this month, at which she is preparing to increase income tax, the chancellor’s former No 2 defended breaking manifesto commitments if necessary.
“You make manifesto commitments because they’re important. You wouldn’t make them lightly, but equally, if you’re in government, you’ve got to be frank with the public about the trade-offs in the situations that you have and take the right decisions for the country, even if that makes you unpopular,” he said.
Privately, cabinet ministers have told the Guardian that they would only accept a tax rise if there was also something tangible that benefited the public.
“Of course, we’d want to end up in a position where people across the country can see that we are helping with the cost of living pressures.”
In his new post, Jones, who is based in Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, is responsible for delivery across government. He said that Labour had to be much bolder about reforming failing public services.
“What we can’t do is continue to defend the status quo where they’re not performing. Previous attempts to incrementally improve the current system have not proven to be good enough and so we’ve got to think much more radically.”
He admitted that, over time, AI would replace some civil service jobs. “We’re working with the very old structures of the state that are not fit for the modern age and the public are losing out as a consequence of that. So yes, over time, civil service headcount will reduce.”
He is jointly responsible for digital ID, with it due to be introduced for right-to-work checks – the only part of the system that will be mandatory – before the next election.
At the same time, legislative and technological work will take place to prepare for a wider expansion. Much of the system will be built in-house, with external operators consulted for things such as banking levels of security.
Since Starmer announced the government would bring in digital ID, public support for it has plummeted, to the alarm of ministers.
“There’s been a lot of disinformation online … that says what this actually is, is surveillance. I mean, it’s just not, and we would never build a system in that way.”
Jones admitted next May’s local elections, which are felt inside No 10 to be a moment of peril for Starmer, would be tough. “Governing parties don’t do well in midterm elections, that’s just a fact,” he said. But he denied it would be a make-or-break moment for Starmer.
He did not deny, when asked, that he had leadership ambitions of his own. “I’ve got multiple big jobs that I’ve been in for a couple of weeks and I’m not planning on going anywhere anytime soon,” he said.
