Zack Polanski, new leader of the Green Party.

Self-proclaimed eco-populist Zack Polanski has just won the Green Party’s leadership race by a more than a healthy margin.

He received 20,411 votes from the party membership while Ellie Chowns and Adrian Ramsay’s joint campaign secured only 3,705 votes.

Unlike his leadership rivals, Polanski is not an MP but a London Assembly member – although he has been serving as the party’s deputy leader since 2022.

In his victory speech, he said: “I promise to work every single day to deliver environmental, social, racial, and economic justice.

“And to those of you who didn’t vote for me – this is a democracy, we don’t have to agree on everything.”

While the Green Party is still a small group with just four MPs and two peers in Westminster, Polanski’s election could trigger a substantial shift in their fortunes.

Impact on the left

The most eye-catching element of Polanski’s campaign was his promise to employ populism to elevate the Greens’ message.

He wants the party to be bolder and more forthcoming on the cultural issues many on the left feel Labour are effectively ignoring, such as the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza and the government’s changes to the welfare state.

That means he could end up occupying a very similar space to Jeremy Corbyn’s party – yet to be formally named but known only as Your Party – only with a more environmental slant.

While Polanski has indicated he could be open to the idea of working with Corbyn and his fellow independent MP Zarah Sultana, the former Labour leader has already spurned any such alliance.

Corbyn said........

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