As membership and polling numbers climb for the Greens in England and Wales, Scotland’s party faces muted enthusiasm and dwindling support. What’s driving the divergence, asks Gregor Gall

There’s been a green surge sweeping across these isles this summer but even its high tide has yet to wash up on Scottish shores.

This is because the Green Party in England and Wales (GPEW) has been making hay while the sun shone. Meantime, the Scottish Greens are somewhat in the doldrums.

Insurgent outsider, Zack Polanski, won the GPEW leadership with a barnstorming 85% of the votes. His opponents, two Green MPs, Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns, ran on a joint ticket of co-sharing the leadership.

Ramsay had already been co-leader of the party since 2021. By contrast, Polanski is only a lowly London Assembly (AM) member but had been GPEW deputy leader since 2022.

Before and after his victory, GPEW membership rocketed on account of people wanting to vote for Polanski in the election and then Polanski putting his shoulder to the wheel against Labour and Reform.

Now GPEW membership stands at over 86,000, having been 64,518 at the time of Polanski’s election and around 60,000 when he announced his candidacy in June. It’s been given a further boost by the barney between Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn in Your Party.

Read more:

All this will make the Scottish Greens, dare I say, green with envy. Its membership has only increased by around 400 since its leadership election on 29 August.

When Polanski won on 2 September,........

© Herald Scotland