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\n 12 min read5 hr
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Green Party leader Zack Polanski talks to Sienna Rodgers about his by-election success, potential Labour defectors, and how his upbringing shapes his views on Zionism<\/p>\n
Zack Polanski is still revelling in a historic by-election victory in Gorton and Denton, where plumber Hannah Spencer won over 40 per cent of the vote, when he visits The House offices.<\/p>\n
The Greens\u2019 unquestionable triumph in Manchester and corresponding jump in the national polls have been quickly overshadowed, however, by events abroad as Israel and the US launched attacks on Iran.<\/p>\n
Polanski\u2019s deputy, Mothin Ali, reacted to the strikes by joining a protest that critics characterised as supportive of the Iranian regime but the Greens describe simply as anti-war.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t guarantee that I\u2019ve never been on a march where someone hasn\u2019t said something I disagree with,\u201d the leader says, confirming that he would attend these protests himself, even though attendees were flying pro-regime flags and mourning Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. \u201cIt\u2019s cynical when people seek to smear people who are being voices of peace by finding one poster or one line that someone said in a speech.\u201d<\/p>\n
What is his message to those who will look to use this opportunity to escape a theocratic regime that executes gay people and oppresses women?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need absolute solidarity with the Iranian people, and I\u2019ve been consistent on this for years,\u201d he replies, resolute in his warning that the UK could be \u201cdragged into another illegal war\u201d. He supports sanctions on Iran but says they must be \u201chandled very carefully\u201d or they risk hitting the poorest.<\/p>\n
Polanski contends that Britain cannot rely on President Trump \u2013 who is a \u201creal threat\u201d and not an ally \u2013 being out of office in a few years. \u201cWe might get something worse than Donald Trump. It\u2019s really important that we have our own sovereignty here, we stand on our own two feet, and we recognise, thankfully, we\u2019re not an empire any more. We\u2019re a small island.\u201d<\/p>\n
He would like to rejoin the EU at some point (\u201cwe are stronger together\u201d). But for now, does he recognise that British security is deeply reliant on the US, which is something that cannot be changed quickly?<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, in the short term, it\u2019s very difficult to disentangle our military from the US,\u201d he acknowledges. \u201cI think the important thing to do, in the short term, is to look at: \u2018What does the plan look like in the longer term?\u2019 and then to begin to execute it. To make sure that, ultimately, we\u2019re protecting this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
As we turn to coastal communities, Polanski\u2019s prescription is much the same: difficult problems simply require clear leadership.<\/p>\n
When local residents protest the new infrastructure needed to reach net-zero targets, who wins \u2013 democracy or the environment? \u201cI think you can have both,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have to show leadership. Far too often, consultation actually means notification.\u201d<\/p>\n
His description of this ideal might sound like notification with more communication. \u201cWhat\u2019s really powerful is when a politician turns up in the community and says: \u2018This is what we need to get done. This is why I\u2019m taking you on that journey. Let\u2019s work out how we can do it together.\u2019\u201d But he insists this approach can build trust.<\/p>\n
Polanski characterises Keir Starmer, by contrast, as having a \u201cworrying authoritarian edge to him\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think this is what Labour MPs stand for at all. So many of them are so deeply frustrated and disappointed right now. In fact, I know they are because I speak to them,\u201d he continues. \u201cI know many of them are just hanging on in there, and I get that \u2013 they\u2019re waiting for another leadership contest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andy Burnham is often regarded as the Labour politician with the charisma to counteract the Polanski effect, but he was blocked by the leadership from entering Parliament.<\/p>\n
While Polanski does not believe the Greater Manchester mayor would have held Gorton and Denton for Labour, he admits: \u201cWhen he wasn\u2019t selected, I\u2019ll be completely honest, I was really happy about it, because it would\u2019ve been really tricky.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Green leader claims to hope that dissenting Labour MPs will \u201cincreasingly find their voice\u201d, yet he doubts their ability to do so: \u201cThe Prime Minister far too often holds them in contempt.\u201d<\/p>\n
How many is he discussing defection with? \u201cIf you speak to some Labour MPs, some days it seems like it\u2019s going to be their last day in the party, and other days they\u2019ve seen a glimmer of light and think everything\u2019s going to be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pushed for a number of potential defectors, he says it has reached \u201ca handful\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Zack](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Zack-Polanski-7900-a-SR.jpg\")
\nZack Polanski\u00a0(Photography by Louise Haywood-Schiefer)
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The Green leader, who listens to political podcasts at three times the normal speed, is a fast talker.<\/p>\n
Although his favourite content comes from Twitch and YouTube streamers, he refers to \u201cthe cesspit that is online\u201d, where it feels like \u201ceveryone in the world hates each other\u201d. He suspects that bots were used to target him during the by-election campaign because the level of abuse dropped off as soon as it ended.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at my posts during that campaign \u2013 which would have comment after comment about my teeth, about politics, about all sorts of things \u2013 that went from, like, 95 per cent of the comments to five per cent almost overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Polanski, 43, was shy as a child and drew further into himself when his parents divorced. He credits drama classes at school for building his confidence. He later became an actor and, more controversially, a hypnotherapist. (In 2013 he was persuaded by a reporter to boost her cup size with the power of the mind, as an experiment. He has apologised for the incident while saying it was misrepresented by the Sun.)<\/p>\n
He became a London Assembly member in 2021, deputy leader of the Greens the following year, and six months ago easily won the top job with 85 per cent of party member votes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I didn\u2019t have those drama classes when I was 11, I certainly wouldn\u2019t be doing what I\u2019m doing now,\u201d he says. \u201cI felt so insecure about who I was and my place in the world and what was going on about my family. Like so many young people at that age, if their parents divorce, I felt like it was my fault and I\u2019d done something wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
After attending a Jewish school that he enjoyed, he moved at secondary age to Stockport grammar, a private school, on a scholarship. Bullied for being Jewish and more so for being gay, he \u201cabsolutely hated every second of it\u201d.<\/p>\n
As the eldest of his father\u2019s children, the youngest of his mother\u2019s, and the only child of both parents, he \u201cfit every category\u201d of siblinghood, which one imagines must have felt like fitting none of the categories.<\/p>\n
While his dad worked in a DIY shop and his mum did lots of jobs \u2013 in theatres, as a make-up artist \u2013 he cannot easily define himself in terms of class either: \u201cI was one of the poorer children at school but, still, my story is not a story of poverty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do his parents support the Greens now? \u201cI don\u2019t talk about my parents \u2013 just because I\u2019m in public life, but they\u2019re not,\u201d he replies, though the Guardian reported last year that they were Green voters. He is more guarded than one might expect from a politician pitching themselves as a straight talker.<\/p>\n
Apart from inhaling the chocolatey fumes of the nearby McVitie\u2019s factory via his bedroom window, the only positive childhood memory he recalls is being part of the Jewish community in northern Manchester, including cheder on Sundays.<\/p>\n
Being raised in a pro-Israel family must complicate his feelings about the Jewish state. What did Zionism mean to him at that time?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was growing up, the story of Israel was always ever-present in the family home and in the school,\u201d he says. \u201cAs I got older, though, I was always really aware of socialist Zionism, a small group of people that were always against the eviction of the Palestinians from their homeland, and [non-Zionist Jewish socialist movement] Bundism as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, there\u2019s lots of different aspects of what a Jewish homeland would look like. It is a complicated, sensitive and nuanced conversation. What is clear to me, though, is what Zionism is under Benjamin Netanyahu \u2013 a genocidal regime.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cZionism is racism\u201d is the title of a motion that is being sent to the next Green Party Conference and that Polanski has not opposed. Would that statement not flatten the nuance he speaks of? \u201cIf we\u2019re talking about Benjamin Netanyahu and the genocidal regime, then that is obviously racist,\u201d he replies.<\/p>\n
But \u201cZionism is racism\u201d would be labelling as racist those he grew up alongside \u2013 family, friends \u2013 who consider themselves Zionist.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think all statements and slogans are complicated because there\u2019s always more nuance behind a sentence, and so that\u2019s why I think the sentence needs qualifying to talk about the present day and what\u2019s happening right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
He would not consider them racists for being Zionists, though, would he? \u201cWho, sorry?\u201d Zionists he grew up around, for example. \u201cI think if someone supports Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s genocide, then I think there\u2019s no other definition of that than racist.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he has mentioned different kinds, such as socialist Zionism? \u201cYeah, and so that\u2019s for that person to define what their Zionism is. That\u2019s why I\u2019m defining the Zionism that I\u2019m talking about. And that\u2019s the problem with labels, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Gorton and Denton campaign, critics opposed the Green Party\u2019s use of videos in Urdu. Would he do one in Hebrew? \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was born David Paulden before he changed his name (Zack after the Jewish character in Goodnight Mister Tom; Polanski to restore his familial name). Together with his professional background as an actor, and his past as a Liberal Democrat who so opposed Jeremy Corbyn\u2019s Labour leadership that he heckled him at a rally, the rebranding has led to charges of inauthenticity from some. How does he respond?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d laugh in their face. I think there\u2019s a lot of inauthenticity in politics, but it\u2019s not coming from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked when his thinking changed on Corbyn, who endorsed the Greens in the by-election, Polanski explains: \u201cLots of people have been on this journey\u2026 I really bought the fairytale that a national economy was anything like a household budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
Citing Extinction Rebellion and becoming a vegan as contributing factors to his political journey, he argues that openly changing his mind helps to connect with people. \u201cI\u2019m almost more suspicious of politicians who have a fixed mindset about everything,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Many would say Corbyn is one of those politicians. \u201cMe and Jeremy Corbyn are very different people. He\u2019s said so. He wouldn\u2019t mind me saying that,\u201d he replies.<\/p>\n
When Corbyn was opposition leader in 2018, Polanski tweeted that as \u201ca pro-European Jew\u201d, these were \u201ctwo reasons I couldn\u2019t vote for Labour under Jeremy Corbyn\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince then, we\u2019ve had a book by Paul Holden, The Fraud, which I think has laid out the cynical and systemic deliberate obfuscation of a really serious issue like antisemitism. I believe that I believed what I was reading and what I was seeing,\u201d he explains today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a Jewish leader of a political party who regularly gets accused of antisemitism. I think we need to take antisemitism really seriously, and I don\u2019t believe a political weaponisation of it is the way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Zack](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Zack-Polanski-7975-a-cover.jpg\")
\nZack Polanski\u00a0(Photography by Louise Haywood-Schiefer)
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So, what next for Zack Polanski?<\/p>\n
He is not interested in the London mayoralty for himself \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m more focused on Parliament\u201d \u2013 but reckons New York\u2019s Zohran Mamdani offers a blueprint for Green success. (The pair are liaising on their shared love of video-based comms.) Nor would he run in any non-London by-election: \u201cWhat I will be doing is looking for the future Hannah Spencers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Polanski has made it clear that he would not stand against Diane Abbott in her Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat, where he currently rents with his partner Richie. Opposing a \u201cnational treasure\u201d is a \u201cnon-starter\u201d, he stresses. Yet the idea, The House understands, is that he could be her successor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone should be rushing her for an answer,\u201d says the Green leader. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely not up to me to decide when Diane Abbott is going to retire.\u201d Yet he does not reject the concept: \u201cHackney North and Stoke Newington is one seat that is definitely in consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, where for the Green Party? In pushing Labour into third place in a previously safe seat, they have put a serious dent \u2013 if not altogether destroyed \u2013 the argument that Labour is the only left alternative to Reform UK.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy target is to be an MP within a much bigger group of Green MPs. Whether that is having a confidence and supply deal, or any government relationship, really depends on what the voters decide, who the leader of the biggest party is, what they\u2019re offering,\u201d Polanski says.<\/p>\n
He rules out any kind of partnership with Starmer: \u201cI think that relationship is broken. There are plenty of Labour MPs that I would very happily work with, such as Nadia Whittome, Clive Lewis, but I think the chances of them leading the Labour Party, with no disrespect to them, are about as likely as me leading the Labour Party.\u201d<\/p>\n
A progressive alliance is similarly dismissed, now that the Greens are \u201cconfident in our own ability to win\u201d \u2013 even if the Tories and Reform unite the right.<\/p>\n
\u201cGorton and Denton was our 127th target seat, which now means there\u2019s no no-go areas for the Green Party in the country. What we\u2019ve absolutely smashed out the park now is that idea of a wasted vote. That line was holding us back for decades, and I cannot wait to see how much faster we can move now.\u201d<\/p>\n
As we leave Millbank Tower, an office worker spots the Green leader and begins waving excitedly from inside. By the time Polanski is explaining that he now receives Nigel Farage levels of attention, she has abandoned her desk and come out to praise him in person. He looks faintly self-conscious \u2013 but does not miss his cue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773112393_181_impression.ashx.png\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zack Polanski (Photography by Louise Haywood-Schiefer)
12 min read5 hr
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![\"Zack](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Zack-Polanski-7961-SR_kb8tjx.jpg\")
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