Zack Polanski is now the leader of the Green Party, and will be in the role for the coming two years. This is of great relevance to the left as a whole, because he has previously insisted:
I’m open to working with anyone who’s up for challenging the far-right threat of Reform and this unpopular Labour government
This was in clear reference to the growing movement around the Your Party project to build a new mass party on the left.
Zack Polanski in, eco-centrists out
Any alliance, Zack Polanski said while still deputy leader, “will be in the hands of Green party members” because of the party’s democratic structure. Traditionally, the Greens have opted to support progressive alliances “whereby candidates could voluntarily stand aside in target seats in exchange for backing elsewhere”, though this wasn’t the case in the 2024 election.
Experts backing progressive alliances, however, have stressed the need for Greens to collaborate with others now to help meaningfully challenge the “increasingly united right” around Reform UK. We Deserve Better, for instance, has highlighted how a formal alliance between the Greens and a new left party involving Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana could have significant success.
Polanski responded to such comments by emphasising the importance of a “collaborative” approach to defeat the threat of Reform and Keir Starmer’s Labour government:
Progressive, collaborative and bold politics is a huge part of the Green Party.
The threat we face is Reform & this Labour government.
The decisions we make are up to our collective membership.
We’ll all meet this moment together.
https://t.co/iDVXAP4sHU— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) July 25, 2025
On the right side of history
Zack Polanski has been an outspoken critic of the UK government’s participation in Israel’s genocide in Gaza since 2023. And he has shared platforms with Jeremy Corbyn on numerous occasions during this time, welcoming Corbyn’s own calls for an end to the two-party system. He has also insisted that:
It’s the 99% vs the 1%.
If you’re not Shell or a billionaire, I’m on your side.
And this was very much the message he gave when he won the leadership race with a massive 20,411 votes, soaring above the 3,705 votes that Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns’ joint campaign received:
“People in this country are exhausted, they are tired. They are sick of working long hours & never feeling secure. They see water companies pumping sewage into our waters & charging us extra for the privilege…”
Part of @ZackPolanski‘s speech after becoming Green Party leader pic.twitter.com/VQuJRXxICj
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) September 2, 2025
While critics believe Zack Polanski’s leadership may see the Greens losing some centrist votes, or that a play for left-wing votes just as a new left party is in the making is risky, the fact is that Polanski’s voice is one that Britain sorely needs. And as Green leader, it will carry more weight.
Your Party
It is clear that he has much in common with supporters of Your Party. He has already insisted, for example, that “for too long, the richest in this country have accumulated wealth at the expense of the poorest” and that this is “the most dangerous political moment in my lifetime”. He knows that Reform are capitalising on people’s anger over economic injustice and the soulless banality of the political establishment. And he is intent on working with communities to “bring people together and turn anger into hope”. He has also promised that:
the Green party is going to be relentless in our opposition to a politics that favours the super-wealthy over the rest of us. That’s why the first people I will meet as leader today will be trade unionists: cleaners, carers and hospital porters. That’s why whenever you hear from us, you’ll hear our calls for a wealth tax, our demand for public ownership of water companies and our pledge to make childcare universal and free.
The Green Party is arguably in the best place ever to help form a united left-wing front to challenge Reform and Labour in the coming months and years. And if Polanski’s previous comments about Corbyn are anything to go by, it could be something as straightforward as a pledge to back electoral reform and a shift to proportional representation that could help seal the deal.
Featured image via the Canary
