Zack Polanski took to the stage at the Green Party annual conference to Calvin Harris’s 2010s pop hit “Let’s Go”, where the lyrics, “it’s now or never” could not be more apt.
The Green Party leader is vying for Sir Keir Starmer’s old Holborn and St Pancras seat in a by-election next week, but the odds are stacked against him. It is a historically safe Labour seat and Polanski has been suffering in the polls lately.
Polanksi spent under 24 hours at his own party’s conference, arriving on Thursday night and leaving shortly after his speech on Friday to focus his efforts on last-minute campaigning in the north London constituency.
A party spokesperson suggested a “good” result would be an increase on their previous candidate’s 2024 vote share, but an insider said a loss means internal questions will be asked over whether the Greens need to change direction again.
Polanski transformed the party into a self-described “eco-populist” force, tripling its membership to over 200,000, winning hundreds of local council seats and pivoting from traditional climate issues to hardline economic intervention and strong advocacy for Palestine.
But internal divisions are emerging over a motion that describes Zionism – the movement to create a Jewish state in the Middle East – as a form of racism, which will be debated in a closed plenary session on Sunday.
The party is also shifting more broadly, from last year’s “we are here replace you” message to Labour to a current emphasis on voting Green to push the Government’s policy to the left.
“Voting Green, between general elections, is the most powerful vote you can make,” Polanski declared in his keynote address, raising the question of how the strategy translates to a general election and whether a broad left-wing alliance is on the horizon.
Green splits over ‘Zionism is racism’
But first on the Green Party’s agenda is untangling its stance on Israel and Palestine.
The motion defines Zionism as an ideology that supports “an ethnonationalist Jewish state” and seeks to treat it as “any other form of racism”. It aims to establish the Greens as an anti-Zionist party that supports a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine”.
Asked if he thinks Zionism is racism, Adrian Ramsay, the Green MP for Waveney Valley, said: “No, I don’t. And what I think is really important here is that the Green Party sticks to our long-standing principles of self-determination.”
Ramsay, former co-chair who represents the more old guard environmentalist wing of the party, told The i Paper the motion is “unhelpful” and “unnecessary” as the Greens already challenge the Government to be “far stronger” in how it stands up to the Israeli government.
But Polanski, who is Jewish, has said Zionism is racism depending on how it is defined, telling the BBC: “If your Zionism is the displacement of the Palestinian people then that is clearly racist, and I say that as a Jewish leader of a British political party.”
He is calling for two amendments, firstly to protect Jewish members who attend synagogues who consider themselves Zionist from internal disciplinary action and secondly to remove the motion’s endorsement of a single Palestinian state.
Deputy leader Rachel Millward said it is a “very complicated topic”, explaining that “ethnic cleansing” in the West Bank is “by definition racist”, but Zionism can “mean something quite different to some people”.
“I’m not sure that we need to be here talking about semantics,” she told The i Paper, adding: “I think what we need to be focusing on is what the Green Party is really united on, which is this absolute clarity that our Government is complicit in what the United Nations have named to be a genocide and what is defined as apartheid practices.”
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has announced sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, accusing the Israeli government of overlooking “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians by settlers. The Government’s position is that it is up to the international courts to determine if Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
Zoë Garbett, the Green Mayor of Hackney, said the “genocide in Gaza” must be centred in the debate, saying: “If we’re talking about Zionism in the way that it is being enforced on the Palestinian people and its deep rooting in colonialism, then I think it is racism.”
But she conceded there are “concerns” with how the motion could be implemented, adding: “I’m really hoping for a respectful debate around this.”
‘It’s now or never’ for Polanski
Party divisions appear to run deeper than the Gaza debate, with tensions between the traditional Parliamentary wing focused on the climate crisis and the new wave of radical politics that is popular with younger voters.
Asked whether he supports the direction of Polanski’s leadership, Ramsay said there has been “huge growth” in membership and great electoral success, meaning the party has more influence to push Labour on environmental issues.
“The crucial thing for me is the Green Party is now getting a lot more attention,” he said. “I’m laser-like in my focus in Parliament on pushing the government to be stronger on the environment, both on climate resilience and on restoring nature.”
Zack Polanski during the Green Party autumn conference, at the Brighton Centre in East Sussex. Provider: Will Colebourne/PA WireBut a party source said there are frustrations around the “is Zionism racism” motion overshadowing wider environmental and economic debates.
They said that if Polanski loses in next week’s by-election, there are likely to be internal questions about whether there needs to be a “shift in direction again”.
The Greens have slipped in the polls, peaking with more than 20 per cent following Hannah Spencer’s by-election triumph in Gorton and Denton in February to around 11 per cent now.
Millward admitted that Polanski is the “underdog” in Holborn and St Pancras, adding: “We’ve never pretended otherwise. This is a safe Labour seat.”
She said it will be “questionable” if next week’s result sees the “Green vote collapse”, but added: “I’m sure that the very worst case would be that he does extremely well and a lot better than Greens have ever done before in that seat. “
A party spokesperson accused Labour of timing the by-election to disadvantage Polanski on the eve of the party’s conference, saying the date was “not of our choosing”, adding: “I suspect they very well knew what they were doing when they chose next Thursday.”
A Labour campaign source dismissed the claim as “another argument that clashes with reality”, pointing out their conference was longer and took place the same week as the Greens.
“While Polanski focusses on Westminster politics, we’ll focus on getting a local champion elected for this borough,” they added.
Greens preparing for a coalition?
There has been a clear shift in emphasis from last year’s challenge of a Green-run Government to the new message of pushing Labour to the left.
Asked whether this represents a move towards a potential coalition with Labour at the next general election, a Green Party spokesperson insisted it would be “up to members”. The party’s unique democratic process means all paid-up members attending bi-annual conferences can vote on policy motions.
However, they conceded that the “emphasis changed” from a year ago and that there are now internal discussions on how the democratic process could “adapt” to get “faster decision making”.
Millward said she would “certainly not” rule out an “alliance” with Labour.
But she noted any deal must not just “prop up a Labour Government”, adding: “We’d want to make sure that they were delivering on our agenda if we’re going to have a kind of arrangement.”
Ramsay would not set out “the specifics of who we may or may not work with” when asked about a potential coalition, but said the party is “open to being part of a Government”.
He suggested another option could be a “balance of power situation where you’re not in coalition, but you’re seeking to influence what that government decides”. This could happen if there is a hung Parliament, meaning a minority Government negotiates on policy with other parties without a formalised coalition.
A major YouGov poll found Labour would be the largest party in a hung Parliament if an election was held tomorrow, with Burnham’s party winning 241 seats and Zack Polanski’s Greens on nine.
This suggests that battle lines could be drawn on which parties can form the strongest, fastest alliances in a complete upheaval of the status quo.
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