The Green Party’s aggressive sectarian campaigning in Gorton & Denton is curious considering the party’s very much non-conservative policy on contentious faith issues. E.g. abolishing all faith schools…
Their policy on faith schools, uncovered on the members area on the Party’s own website, states that “no publicly-funded school shall be run by a religious organisation.” This would mean a radical move to end all taxpayer funding for faith schools…
- “At the same time we will abolish the requirement for a compulsory daily act of worship. Schools which choose to continue to hold acts of worship will provide an alternative activity for learners who choose not to take part.”
- “No publicly-funded school shall be run by a religious organisation.”
- “Privately-funded schools run by religious organisations must reflect the inclusive nature of British society and become part of the Local Authority admissions system.”
- “Opt-outs from equality and diversity legislation will not be allowed for faith schools and they will not be permitted to promote homophobia or transphobia on the grounds of religion.”
In 2024/25 there were 6,781 state funded faith schools in England – 34% of all state schools. This includes ones from religious groups including Church of England, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Hindu. The Greens’ faith-mixing policy includes plans to “facilitate the children mixing with other local schools.” Deliberately allocating school places to children in schools that are farther away in order to ensure schools are “diverse”…
The policy comes from the Green Party charter, which is continuously revised. Policies passed by conference are adopted as party policy until rescinded. These are currently included in the Green Party’s library of “Policies for a Sustainable Society.” The official position on that is: “The Green Party’s Policies for a Sustainable Society (PSS) represents the policy foundation which the Party stands upon.”
The Greens have always been controversial for the forced progressivism of their education policy. In 2016, the Scottish Greens were attacked for proposing to close Catholic schools across Scotland. How will their official policy against faith schools go down with conservative Muslim voters in Gorton and Denton?
