Wednesday briefing: How Zack Polanski’s populist takeover could change the Green party forever | Green party

Good morning. After a bruising leadership contest, Zack Polanski didn’t just win the Green party vote, he cleaned up. His “eco-populist” platform – which borrowed directly from Nigel Farage’s playbook – earned him 85% of votes.

Polanski defeated Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns, winning 20,411 votes relative to their 3,705 in a ballot of party members. The contest exposed deeper questions about Green party identity and how it positions itself amid a rapidly shifting political landscape.

Essentially there were two options for members: a small-c conservative party (which Polanski characterises as over-timid and uninspiring) or a more radical, polarising one (which risks alienating moderate voters). They gambled on the latter.

And so a party typically seen as so collegiate and cautious is taking a step into the unknown, voting in a spikier, more media-focused leader. I spoke to the Guardian’s senior political correspondent Peter Walker about what this win represents for green politics, and whether Polanski will woo voters.

Five big stories

1. UK news | Britain’s long-term borrowing costs have hit their highest level in 27 years, intensifying the pressure on the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, before the autumn budget.

2. Spain | Europe and western countries’ double standards over the wars in Ukraine and Gaza threaten to undermine their global standing, the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has warned.

3. Brazil | Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and seven of his allies, including four senior members of the military, have gone on trial for allegedly attempting to stage a coup.

4. China | Xi Jinping warned the world faced a choice between peace or war as he capped a week of diplomatic grandstanding with China’s largest-ever military parade, flanked by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.

5. UK news | Esther Ghey, the mother of the murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, and the Oscar-winning actor Kate Winslet are calling on Keir Starmer to legally ban smartphones in schools.

In depth: ‘The one thing it won’t be is boring’

Polanski is a 42-year-old, media-friendly former actor who lives in north-east London and has been Green party deputy leader since 2022. He has previously expressed questionable views about hypnotherapy and breast enlargements, and loves going on hostile radio shows and afterwards arguing with presenters over X (formerly Twitter). His critique of the Green party is that change has been too slow, and as such, the party is getting left behind, not least with the rapid growth of Reform UK.

“One of the curses of the Greens is that almost all their senior leaders are just very reasonable people,” said Peter Walker. “They don’t really like getting into these kinds of debates and giving these slightly populist talking points. And I’m not saying that Polanski isn’t reasonable, but he’s more a creature of the more modern age.”

Polanski beat Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns who were seen as the co-leaders of choice for party establishment types, including former leader Caroline Lucas. They promised to gradually keep winning more council and parliamentary seats.

Of course the Greens are a radical leftwing party (in their 2024 election manifesto they promised wealth taxes, nationalised utilities and a ban on some short-haul flights) but they have also made gains by appealing to a larger group of voters who are typically more centre or rightwing.

The Polanski wing of the Green party, on the other hand, is more aligned with Corbynism-style politics, saying he would be willing to cooperate in a leftwing alliance with Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. This may appeal to younger, more urban voters but it could scare away older, rural, Tory and Lib Dem-leaning voters. Ramsay and Chowns warned that the Greens risked becoming “a Jeremy Corbyn support act”.

How much will Polanski change things?

In terms of policy, probably not much. The Green leader in England and Wales has very limited power (the party didn’t even have a leader before 2008) with members having much more control than they do in other parties. “Even now, the leader has zero say over policy,” said Peter. According to the party itself, the primary purpose of the leader is to “provide visionary leadership and direction for the party”.

Leadership contests are generally polite. “Every year I go to the Green conference, write one story from it, and no one really reads it because they do things in this quite sensible way. And there’s not really any big arguments. There’s not any kind of drama,” said Peter.

This year’s race has been unusually divisive and attracted more attention This is partly down to Polanski, who has generated headlines by announcing his leadership bid to journalists before his colleagues, while also praising Farage’s storytelling techniques and the importance of connecting with anger. It is also because the party is getting stronger and there are more people with skin in the game. It now has four MPs and more than 800 council seats, clocking up 10% of support in polls.

In debates Chowns has been horrified by the idea that the Green party could learn anything from Farage’s campaign style, while Polanski says the opposite. “The leader is the person to whom the media will kind of gravitate towards for any views. And that’s why it could be a significant change, because Polanski is quite a different beast to what they’ve had in the past,” said Peter.

In his winning speech Polanski said the political space had become ripe for charlatans like Farage who pretend to serve working-class communities but are actually destroying our democracies, so he felt a moral responsibility to step up and be bold.

What does the Green party membership make of him?

Given his convincing win, it’s fair to say the membership likes him. But he remains divisive.

Senior figures and some party veterans don’t like his “fighty language” – for example he directly challenge mainstream narratives about small boats as “bullshit” – which runs counter to the Green’s traditionally calm approach. One figure told Aletha Adu he felt uncomfortable with Polanski’s “violent metaphors”, saying that the party values persuasion not confrontation.

He announced his leadership bid in a Guardian interview, with one member describing it a “hostile takeover” as no one knew he was planning to go for leadership and has since caused an influx of new members who are “very much from the left”. There are concerns that he could mess up years of work and process from the Greens, with Ramsay barely bothering to mask his disdain for Polanski’s approach.

Others have been buoyed up by his energy which has resulted in so many new members. “During the leadership race, some senior greens I’ve talked to have been saying ‘I’m not sure about him’,” said Peter. “But a lot of them are saying he’s brought this real enthusiasm to the party … There’s a lot of new members coming in saying, I’m here because I think Zack is great.”

What will voters make of him?

It remains to be seen if Polanksi will cut through with voters. “It’s a bit of a punt by Green membership that he’s going to be able to do what he promises to do, which is to make a slightly Farage-like image and seize attention.”

It is perhaps particularly risky, because leaders have had a good run of it over recent years. In 2024 the Greens took three new seats: one from Labour and two from the Conservatives. They held their existing seat in Brighton Pavilion. They went from one MP to four, which many said couldn’t be done.

But these incremental gains may be too slow. “Politics is moving a bit too quickly,” said Peter. “Reform UK has already got many more members than the Greens … and could potentially form the next government. The Greens are nowhere near that. The thing is it needs to move a bit more quickly.”

The thing to watch is whether Polanski can deliver on this communications style and also keep the party’s core member base on board, Peter noted. But whatever happens, said Peter: “The one thing it won’t be is boring.”

What else we’ve been reading

• I loved reading this dispatch by journalist Iman Amrani about the joy of taking her twins to festivals this summer, where they could suspend reality and soak up the magic. It has inspired me to be brave and take my own little ones next year. Aamna

• Survivors of Afghanistan’s earthquake share moving testimonies about being buried under rubble, seeing their homes washed away, and worst of all, discovering how many of their loved ones had been killed. Phoebe

• I have yet to visit the UK’s first permanent exhibition and cultural space dedicated to Somali heritage. Reading this piece by Sundus Abdi on its power has made me realise I need to correct that immediately. Aamna

• In awe of IT consultant Julie Williams who is so committed to ball pits she had one installed in her house. Potential buyers have been told they can keep the balls. All 11,300 of them. Phoebe

• Calling all space nerds: the James Webb space telescope has spotted an ancient, “nearly naked” black hole that astronomers believe may have formed in the first fraction of a second after the big bang. If confirmed, it could upend our prevailing theories of the universe. Aamna

Sport

England-South Africa ODI | England were skittled for 131 at Headingley before Aiden Markram took apart the attack – in particular debutant Sonny Baker – in a crushing win.

Tennis | Carlos Alcaraz moved effortlessly into the semi-finals of the US Open with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 win against Jiri Lehecka.

Boxing | Imane Khelif has appealed to the court of arbitration for sport over World Boxing’s decision to bar the 26-year-old from its events without a preliminary genetic sex test.

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