Peter Hain interview: Green Party surge could keep David Cameron in power

"Labour supporters need to vote Labour or they will get five more years of austerity"

Peter Hain, the former Cabinet Office minister (Getty Images)

A close ally of Ed Miliband has warned that the Green Party’s surge could deprive Labour of victory in scores of seats at the May election and keep David Cameron in Downing Street.

Peter Hain, a former Cabinet minister and long-standing green campaigner, has issued a “health warning” to Labour supporters attracted by the Greens that they could be responsible for electing a right-wing, Conservative-led government committed to the “austerity economics” they oppose.

In an interview with The Independent, Mr Hain said: “There is a danger of Labour supporters tempted by the Greens doing exactly what Labour supporters did at the last election. By voting Liberal Democrat, they put a Tory prime minister back into Number 10.

“No one expects the Greens to be in government. The truth is that in scores of marginal seats across the country, Labour supporters need to vote Labour or they will get five more years of austerity, spearheaded by David Cameron in Number 10.”

His intervention will be seen as a sign of jitters in Labour’s ranks as the party tries to see off a triple threat from Ukip and the Scottish National Party as well as the Greens. The Independent’s latest “poll of polls” shows that Labour’s average rating has fallen by five percentage points to 33 per cent since December 2013, while the Greens’ rating has risen five points to eight per cent. Privately, Labour officials admit the Greens pose a real danger because, unlike Ukip, they will take votes away from Labour but not the Tories.

Mr Hain admitted it would be “arrogant” to tell people not to waste their vote on the Greens. “I know why some people of a progressive cast of mind are attracted to the Greens – they are fresh, new and radical. What you would get is the very opposite – a reactionary, deeply right-wing Tory government through the back door,” he said.

“The Greens could get a much higher percentage of the vote than they have in the past and slice off an absolutely critical two to four points needed [by Labour] to defeat the Tories in marginal seats. I am issuing a health warning that, inadvertently, Labour-supporting Green sympathisers could put David Cameron back into power. It is an electoral fact.”

Mr Hain admitted his warning could “fall on deaf ears” in an anti-politics age but claimed: “Labour is not just the Reds but the Greens of British politics. We combine the green agenda with social justice and economic credibility.” He added: “The Green Party does not pretend to have a credible economic strategy or to be a governing party. It is a pressure group, an anti-politics group, like Ukip is on the right.”

He urged potential Green voters to recall Mr Miliband’s record as Energy and Climate Change Secretary. “Ed Miliband is the greenest prime minister designate there has ever been. It would be tragically ironic if Green supporters get another dose of virulently anti-green David Cameron,” he said. “There is something positive to vote for in Ed Miliband. You are not going to get another green leader [like him] as the leader of one of the major parties for a long time.”

Peter Hain has backed Ed Miliband's green credentials (Getty) (Getty Images)

Mr Hain received plaudits from many Greens for his recent book, Back to the Future of Socialism, which calls for a £60bn injection of spending on housing and infrastructure over two years to secure “faster, fairer, green growth.”

While he backs Mr Miliband’s decision to stick to the Coalition’s day-to-day spending limits for the 2015-16 financial year, he is urging Labour to challenge the “neo-liberal orthodoxy” at Westminster by boosting capital spending. He warned Labour: “It is really important that we excite our supporters and offer a genuinely radical alternative, not just an austerity-lite programme.”

Despite his overlap on policy with the Greens, Mr Hain dismissed the idea that a block of Green MPs could support a minority Labour government, as the Greens would never prop up the Tories. Referring to the solitary Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, Mr Hain said: “It is no good having five Caroline Lucases – excellent MP though she is – as they would be facing a Tory prime minister.”

Although the polls show a tight election race, Mr Hain argued that Mr Cameron cannot win. “It is likely that Ed Miliband will be the next prime minister. I expect us to be the largest party,” he said.

With “some misgivings”, Mr Hain is standing down in May after 24 years as MP for Neath and 50 years as a campaigner, starting with anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. He has just turned 65 but we have not seen the last of him. “I am not going to do the garden or lie on the beach,” he said. The smart money is on Mr Hain going to the Lords and becoming a senior minister again if Mr Miliband wins power.