{"id":789676,"date":"2026-10-02T13:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T13:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/789676\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T13:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T13:44:11","slug":"polanski-says-he-does-not-need-to-win-50-50-byelection-to-stay-green-leader-green-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/789676\/","title":{"rendered":"Polanski says he does not need to win \u201850\/50\u2019 byelection to stay Green leader | Green party"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zack Polanski has said his authority as leader of the Green party of England and Wales does not depend on winning next week\u2019s Holborn and St Pancras byelection<\/a>, amid suggestions the party\u2019s popularity may have peaked.<\/p>\n

Polanski, who is trying to take Keir Starmer\u2019s former seat<\/a> from Labour, described the contest as \u201cprobably 50\/50 right now\u201d and \u201creally on a knife edge\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked in an interview with the Guardian how much his position as leader depended on victory, Polanski said: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t depend on it whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the election had ramifications for politics nationally but \u201cnot for my leadership\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be completely honest, it won\u2019t surprise you to know that I want to win the seat,\u201d Polanski said. \u201cI think the seat is winnable, and I think it\u2019s probably 50-50 right now. It\u2019s really, really on a knife edge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Delegates arriving at the Green party\u2019s annual conference in Brighton on Friday. Photograph: Sean Smith\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Senior Green party<\/a> figures privately fear defeat in Holborn and St Pancras could severely damage Polanski\u2019s leadership, amid concerns the party\u2019s rapid rise in membership and polling has not translated into campaigning strength on the ground.<\/p>\n

Attempts to concentrate resources on the byelection have caused internal friction, with the Guardian revealing last month that Polanski wanted the Greens\u2019 annual conference postponed<\/a> so the party could focus on the contest. That proposal was rejected by its executive.<\/p>\n

Polanski, who has never been an MP, maintained there were \u201cstill advantages to being a leader outside Westminster\u201d, while also arguing that entering parliament would offer another way of putting pressure on the Labour government.<\/p>\n

The byelection has become an early test of whether Labour under Andy Burnham can reclaim progressive voters who have moved towards the Greens, and the result may inform the government\u2019s decisions over expanding North Sea oil and gas drilling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see this election as high stakes for people in Holborn and St Pancras and high stakes for the climate crisis,\u201d Polanski said. \u201cWe know that \u2026 a decision on [drilling projects Rosebank and Jackdaw] has been delayed until after this byelection, because Andy Burnham literally wants to see whether he can get away with drilling for new North Sea oil and gas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Guardian has reported the Jackdaw decision is likely to be held until after the byelection<\/a>, while a decision on Rosebank is still pending. Burnham has promised a more \u201cpragmatic\u201d approach to North Sea oil and gas than his predecessor, as the government balances its climate commitments against pressure over energy security and jobs.<\/p>\n

Both projects already hold licences granted under the Conservatives, meaning approval by Labour would not amount to issuing new exploration licences.<\/p>\n

Asked whether Burnham\u2019s surge could win back younger and progressive voters from the Greens, Polanski said there were two possibilities. One was that Burnham \u201cmeans what he\u2019s saying right now\u201d and would actually \u201cimplement action today and not tomorrow, and not after the next general election\u201d. In this case, Polanski said, the country would improve as a result of pressure from the Greens and others.<\/p>\n

The other, which Polanski called \u201cthe more likely scenario\u201d, was that \u201cwhat we\u2019re getting is talk\u201d. He said Burnham was \u201cpromising things after the next general election, but soon we\u2019re going to have a budget that he\u2019s already warning is going to be a difficult budget\u201d.<\/p>\n

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In this case, he said, \u201cmore and more people will start to question why would you vote for the Labour party or get involved with the Labour party when the Green party has been growing for over a year now\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cYou don\u2019t have to accept the half-fat version. You can join the Green party and actually make sure we have the country that Andy Burnham\u2019s talking about, but not taking the action on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arguing that Labour\u2019s climate policy had a gap between rhetoric and actions, Polanski asked: \u201cDoes Andy Burnham just not care about the climate crisis? It just feels like such a glaring gap in everything that he\u2019s talked about, not just because of Rosebank and Jackdaw, but in the need to invest in renewables, the need for a clean green revolution, the need for new jobs, and it just feels like this vision is just not there.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWhen are we going to see difficult choices for the super rich and the very, very wealthy? Instead, he\u2019s talking about difficult choices for pensioners. So already, the action is not meeting his \u2018hope\u2019 rhetoric, and I think people are already starting to ask questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Referring to arrests of Palestine Action supporters outside the Labour party conference<\/a>, Polanski said: \u201cThose people on the doorstep, they can see that Ed Miliband stood on stage and told many of us that we were right on Palestine, but just behind him, outside the conference hall, pensioners were still being dragged off, being arrested for holding signs up saying \u2018I support Palestine Action\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polanski is facing a separate test of his leadership at the Green party\u2019s annual conference, where members are due to debate a deeply contentious motion declaring \u201cZionism is racism\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asked about criticism from senior Greens who believe he has failed to provide leadership over the issue, he said: \u201cLeadership is about priorities, and this motion isn\u2019t my priority. My priority is the cost of living. My priority is nationalising Thames Water. My priority is ending the genocide that\u2019s happening in Gaza and freeing Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Jewish Greens have raised concerns about what the motion could mean for their place within the party.<\/p>\n

Asked whether he could guarantee that a Jewish member would not face disciplinary action simply for attending a synagogue that identified as Zionist, Polanski said: \u201cI can guarantee that this motion has absolutely nothing to do with disciplinary action against anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zack Polanski has said his authority as leader of the Green party of England and Wales does not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-789676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}