Zack Polanski has won the Greens leadership election by an overwhelming margin and will now become the sole head of the party.
Mr Polanski has won by 20,411 votes to 3,705 cast for the joint leadership bid of Mr Ramsay and Dr Ellie Chowns.
The London Assembly member, who is not an MP, will now become the party’s only leader, replacing the previous co-leader model that saw MPs Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer lead the Greens.
He has beaten leadership rivals Mr Ramsay and Dr Chowns, both currently Green Party MPs, who ran on a joint ticket to be co-leaders and were seen as the continuity candidates – offering to build on the party’s success in the 2024 general election.
Mr Polanski, who is currently serving as deputy leader, has won the election on a platform to take the party in a different direction, with his offer of “eco-populism”, which he says will make the Greens a real alternative to Labour and Reform UK. He believes the party could do more to appeal to those on the progressive left.
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Mr Polanski has beaten leadership rivals Adriam Ramsay and Ellie Chowns. Pic: PA
He has said he wants to transform the party into a more visible, mass-membership movement, and told a hustings the Greens should combine “substance with clickbait”, alongside “storytelling”.
The results were announced at a news conference held in a community centre in Waterloo, London, on Tuesday, 2 September.
Speaking following his election, Mr Polanski promised to “work every single day to deliver environmental, social, racial and economic justice”.
He told members who didn’t vote for him that “we don’t have to agree on everything”, but said they have a “common cause” – to grow the party.
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Mr Polanski won with a vote of 20,411 members
Mr Polanski said he would like the Greens to win at least 30 seats at the next general election, as well as get more MSs elected to the Senedd in Cardiff.
“This is the Green Party’s time,” he said. “People in this country are exhausted, they are tired, they are sick of working long hours and never feeling secure.
“We have a failing Labour government, both on the two-child benefit cap, disability cuts, [and] the genocide in Gaza.
“There is a space for bold leadership, a party that is unapologetic about what it stands for and what it stands against.”
Mr Polanski also hit out at “charlatans like Nigel Farage”, accusing him and other millionaires of “pretending to serve working-class communities” while “destroying our democracies”.
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Mr Polanski said he would like there to be at least 30 Green MPs following the next general election. Pic: PA
Speaking to Sky News, Mr Polanski also reaffirmed his commitment to become an MP, and declined to rule out working with the new party created by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and ex-Labour MP Zarah Sultana.
“It’s too soon to talk about joining or electoral coalitions,” he said. But Mr Polanski said collaboration is “in our DNA” and that people are already abandoning Labour because the party is “failing so badly” in government, citing online support for Mr Corbyn’s new organisation.
He also said that although he “despises” Mr Farage, he would like to emulate the “bold messaging [that] cuts through” – but with “truth rather than lies”.
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Polanski pledges to grow Green Party to ‘deliver justice’
Green Party ‘captured by hard-left activists’
Dr Chowns and Mr Ramsay have congratulated Mr Polanski on his victory and said the Greens are in “the strongest position in its history”. They said they look forward to seeing the “momentum continue” and added that they are “fully committed to playing our part”.
But the Conservatives have warned that the party “has been captured by hard-left activists more obsessed with campus culture wars than farmers”. Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake added that the Greens are indulging in “extreme left-wing fantasies and failed socialist economics”, while only the Tories are “committed to real stewardship of the environment”.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has today announced that she would remove all environmental protections on drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea.
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