Over 100 Green Councillors Sign Letter Backing Zack Polanski's Leadership Bid
Zack Polanski gave a speech in February against racism and the far-right (Alamy)
4 min read
Over 100 Green Party councillors have signed a letter in support of Zack Polanski’s leadership bid, in a sign that the party could be heading towards choosing a non-MP as leader.
In a letter seen by PoliticsHome, 107 Green Party councillors who represent a “wide diversity of seats” in urban and rural areas have declared their support for Polanski, who is currently the Green deputy leader and a London Assembly member.
These councillors sit on a broad range of county, district and unitary councils across the UK, which are led by a wide variety of other parties.
Polanski has launched a solo campaign against two MPs, Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns, who are running to become the co-leaders. The leadership contest comes after Bristol Central MP Carla Denyer resigned from her position as co-leader alongside Ramsay.
Denyer and Polanski both represent a more urban, left-wing radical side of the party, while Ramsay and Chowns represent rural seats where they mostly won votes from environmentally-conscious former Tory voters.
This leadership election could therefore represent a significant shift for the Green Party in terms of its direction.
Voting opened this month, with a result expected to be announced in September.
In the letter signed by Green councillors, they acknowledged a “wide disenchantment with politics right now”.
“The time is now for a bold Green Party, ready to cut through and give people hope. That’s why we’re backing Zack Polanski for leadership,” the letter said.
They claimed that Labour has “abandoned its principles at an unprecedented speed” and is “rudderless, shorn of values and good sense” under the leadership of Keir Starmer, citing the government's cuts to disability benefits as an example of this.
“The risk is that without a Green Party that can cut through, only Reform will profit," they wrote.
"That their agenda will run roughshod and rampant, undermining cohesion and climate action. It is in the interest of everyone that this does not continue.”
The group of councillors said they want a Green leader willing to “grab the narrative” and “play the media game”, with Polanski having “proven time and again he can cut through”.
Polanski, who has previously worked as an actor and hypnotherapist, has said he stands for a radical new “eco-populism” and suggested he wants the party to be bolder to compete with Nigel Farage's Reform UK for political and media attention as the mainstream parties struggle to maintain public support.
As an advocate for transgender rights, Polanski has been criticised by some gender-critical Green supporters for his stance. One former Green member who was expelled from the party told The House that they had spoken to colleagues who would leave the party if he were elected as leader.
“It’s just hollow, shouty, student politics,” they said. “I don’t think it represents professionalism.”
Polanski’s public image has also been tarnished by newspaper reports from 2013 that show he previously claimed he could help women increase their breast size through hypnotherapy.
However, Green councillor Emma Carter in a rural area in Stafford – who signed the letter in support of Polanski – said it was a "crucial time" for the new party leader to "challenge the establishment" and also challenge the rise of Reform, which won control of multiple councils in May's local elections.
Another co-signatory Stuart Jeffery, a Green councillor on Maidstone Borough Council and Kent County Council, told PoliticsHome that having Polanski as leader would “without a shadow of a doubt” help the party pick up votes from even more disaffected former Labour voters.
“My membership list is growing at the moment in Maidstone, and a lot of people are former Labour Party supporters and members," he said.
"I know from colleagues around the county that we're all seeing the same. Just last month, knocking on the doors, people were utterly disillusioned with Labour and saying, ‘we were thinking about you’. And I was able to say, ‘yeah, because we're definitely on the left of politics’.”
He added that while there might be “subtleties of difference” in communicating with people across urban and rural areas, he believed that Polanski can spread the Green Party message to “resonate very clearly with people from across the country”.
