Green Party leader Zack Polanski delivers his speech on the first day of its conference at Bournemouth International Centre.

Zack Polanski promised to “pick fights” when he was elected on a landslide as the new Green Party leader last month – and it seems he has already delivered.

Hours before the Greens’ annual conference even began in Bournemouth on Friday, he was arguing with broadcasters in the wake of Thursday’s terror attack on a Manchester synagogue, where two people died.

After the home secretary Shabana Mahmood said it was “un-British” for pro-Palestine marches to go ahead after the attack while people are still grieving, Polanski openly disagreed.

Speaking to Sky News, the London Assembly member, who is a Jewish man from Manchester, said it was “deeply irresponsible” to conflate the “protests against a genocide in Gaza” and the anti-semitic attack.

And on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, he defended his deputy leader Mothin Ali for previously appearing to criticise the legitimacy of Israel, claiming that it was a “nuanced conversation”.

The comments quickly lit up social media.

While his online critics slammed his remarks, party insiders backed Polanski for being “robust” in his defence in a way “a lot of other politicians” wouldn’t feel able to.

Another senior source said: “It’s fucking distasteful to criticise a Jewish man over his reaction to this. Conflating those two separate events just plays into the anti-semitic tropes they’re complaining about, as we don’t even know the motive behind the attack.”

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