Zack Polanski has urged voters across Britain to support the Green Party, arguing that a stronger Green vote would push Labour further to the Left on rent controls, wealth taxes, fossil fuels and Gaza.
Delivering the keynote speech at the Greens’ conference in Brighton, the self-described ‘eco-populist’ said voting for his party was the ‘most powerful vote you can make’.
‘Vote Green and watch Labour move,’ Mr Polanski declared, as he seeks to prevent Left-wing voters from returning to Labour under new Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
The 43-year-old said he believed he had a ’50-50′ chance of defeating Labour in next week’s Holborn and St Pancras by-election. He also pointed to the influence the Greens had already exerted on the Government during the party’s poll surge earlier this year.
‘At general elections, the government changes. But between general elections – we change the government,’ Mr Polanski told delegates, following the decision by anxious Labour MPs to replace Keir Starmer with Mr Burnham.
Days after Mr Burnham delivered what was described as the most Left-wing speech by a prime minister since the 1970s, Mr Polanski set out Green proposals for a ‘three-year emergency brake’ on private rents.
Under the plan, rent increases for tenants would be capped through a guarantee modelled on a triple lock.
Mr Polanski also called on the Greens to maintain pressure on Labour to preserve its ban on new North Sea oil and gas drilling. He urged the party to take a tougher stance on Israel and to ‘deproscribe’ Palestine Action.
He further promised that the Greens would ‘introduce a windfall tax to obscene bank profits’, insisting that his party would not ‘hesitate in taxing extreme wealth’.
Zack Polanski has urged voters to back the Green Party to push Labour further Left on rent controls, wealth taxes, fossil fuels and Gaza
In his keynote address at the Greens’ conference in Brighton, the self-described ‘eco-populist’ said supporting his party was the ‘most powerful vote you can make’
Earlier, Mr Polanski insisted he would not be forced to resign as Green leader if he failed to win the Holborn and St Pancras by-election.
He said his future at the head of the Left-wing party would not depend on being elected as an MP for the north London constituency.
Mr Polanski described the contest as ‘on a knife edge’ and ‘probably 50/50 right now’ as he attempts to take the seat from Labour.
However, the Greens’ difficulties in what was once Sir Keir’s seat were highlighted by a call for activists to leave the party’s Brighton conference this weekend and join the by-election campaign.
A banner placed above an empty conference stall urged members: ‘Stop Reading This. Go campaign in Holborn & St Pancras to elect our 6th Green MP.’
The development followed reports that Mr Polanski had unsuccessfully sought to postpone the South Coast gathering so the party could concentrate its resources on his campaign to enter the House of Commons.
Mr Polanski has taken the risk of standing in Holborn and St Pancras despite the Greens’ sharp fall in opinion poll ratings and his rising unpopularity among voters.
He is broadly expected to lose the contest to Labour. The by-election was triggered after Sir Keir resigned from Parliament following his removal as prime minister.
The Greens’ conference in Brighton this weekend has also been accompanied by speculation about a possible leadership challenge from one of Mr Polanski’s deputies.
Mothin Ali, a Leeds City councillor, is reported to be ‘gearing up’ to run in the next Green leadership election due next year.
There has also been a dispute over whether TV channels can air Mr Polanski’s keynote speech live on Friday afternoon, due to strict by-election rules.
Meanwhile, the Brighton gathering is set to be dominated by a furious row over a planned debate by Green members on a motion to declare Zionism as a form of racism.
Zack Polanski is facing a fight for survival in only his second Green Party conference speech as leader amid the party’s plummeting opinion poll ratings
A banner adorning one empty conference stall told party members: ‘Stop Reading This. Go campaign in Holborn & St Pancras to elect our 6th Green MP.’
Caroline Lucas, the former Green leader, has branded the motion ‘divisive’ and warned it ‘could be seen as a sign that Jewish people aren’t welcome in the party’.
Speaking to The Guardian ahead of his keynote conference speech on Friday, Mr Polanski denied his leadership could come under threat if he failed in Holborn and St Pancras.
‘It doesn’t depend on it whatsoever,’ he told the newspaper, adding that the by-election had ramifications for politics nationally but ‘not for my leadership’.
‘I’ll be completely honest, it won’t surprise you to know that I want to win the seat,’ Polanski said.
‘I think the seat is winnable, and I think it’s probably 50-50 right now. It’s really, really on a knife edge.’
Mr Polanski saw an initial surge in support for his party following his election as leader little more than a year ago.
But, as he prepares to give only his second Green conference speech as leader, he has seen the party’s poll ratings almost halve since a peak in March.
This has coincided with a series of rows and Labour’s lurch to the Left under Mr Burnham.
Mr Polanski is reported to have failed with an attempt to postpone the Brighton gathering entirely in order to focus the party’s efforts on his bid to join the House of Commons
Green Party members are being issued with an ‘inclusion card’ at the party’s conference in order to challenge ‘name-calling, abuse or bullying’
Speaking at her party’s own conference in Liverpool this week, Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell said she is ‘confident’ of winning the Holborn and St Pancras contest.
She claimed many Labour voters who left the party for the Greens during Sir Keir’s premiership were giving the party ‘a second look’ now Mr Burnham is in power.
A defeat for Mr Polanski in next Thursday’s by-election would represent a huge blow to his leadership.
Rob Ford, professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said Mr Polanski’s first year as Green leader had ‘brought many more voters off the fence, but most have broken against him’.
‘This big negative shift has coincided with Labour installing a more popular leader and with a large positive shift in Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch’s ratings,’ he wrote in an article for Sky News.
‘Polanski and the Greens need to decide how to respond to Labour’s moves to close down space on the Left.’
He added: ‘Regardless of which way they turn, the Greens may also need to ask themselves whether Polanski remains a political asset after a turbulent first year as leader, which has seen his poll ratings fade fast.
‘Though Labour gains from the Greens are much more evident since Andy Burnham became PM, Green polling had started to decline even before his arrival.’
However, Rachel Millward – another Green deputy leader – claimed her party and Mr Polanski had ‘set the political agenda’ in the past 12 months.
She told Times Radio: ‘The reality is that it’s Zack Polanski who brought the nation Andy Burnham.
‘And if we hadn’t had the success of the Green Party in this last year since Zack’s been leading, which has been unprecedented, phenomenal success…
‘…If we hadn’t had that much pressure on Labour, then we’d probably still be in the Starmer regime, which was pretty much ushering in a Reform government with its lurch to the Right.
‘So actually, what we’re seeing now is that we’ve set the political agenda and the Government is picking that up.’
