This month’s local elections – in which Labour lost the Runcorn and Helsby by-election to Reform UK as well as haemorrhaging councillors– made it abundantly clear that pandering to the right, as the government has done for much of the last year, is a terrible electoral strategy.
Unfortunately, the reaction of Labour Ministers to the party’s dismal performance also demonstrated that they have learnt nothing and lack the capacity for self-reflection, and will therefore continue squeezing people with Rachel Reeves’ rebranded austerity, while Home Secretary Yvette Cooper continues to dance to Farage’s tune over migrants and their war on nature descends to Trumpian levels of dishonesty.
Zack Polanski’s bid a surprise
With the ascendant Reform exploiting the public appetite for change, and Labour seemingly doing all they can to drive disillusioned people into Farage’s arms, it was a heartening surprise when Zack Polanski, the deputy leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, launched a challenge for his party’s leadership.
The Green Party has been steadily growing in strength for the past several years, positioning themselves as a natural home for progressives repulsed by Labour’s slide rightwards under Keir Starmer.
Its current co-leaders, Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, deserve great credit for its 2024 General Election campaign, in which Denyer performed well in TV debates and the party won all four of its targeted seats, quadrupling the number of Green MPs.
So why, you may ask, would Polanski wish to challenge their leadership? Well, in the year since that election the Greens have been largely absent from the national stage, and despite widespread public anger at many of Labour’s policies, such as the cutting of winter fuel payments and disability benefits, they’ve failed to break the surface of the public consciousness or make much of an impression in the media.
Even at the height of the election campaign last year, a poll found that 75 per cent of voters couldn’t identify Denyer, and 94 per cent were unable to identify Ramsay, making them the least recognised of all the main party leaders.
Partly, this is the fault of a mainstream media ecosystem which is largely captured by, and beholden to, the right.
But unfair though this is, that’s the current reality in which the Greens must operate, and they must make the best of it.
Are co-leaders the way forward?
Arguably, their shared co-leadership model has hindered them.
While there are some advantages to this, such as each co-leader being better able to balance the role with duties as a constituency MP, family life or any caring responsibilities they may have, the unfortunate fact is that it doesn’t really work for the Party, and makes it difficult for the public to clearly associate a figurehead with the Greens.
This is unhelpful given that, for a smaller and less well-established party, voters’ impression of and familiarity with the leader is an important factor.
Denyer and Ramsay’s style also seems somewhat bland, technocratic, too nice – poorly suited to the prevailing context of popular anger and anti-establishment sentiment – and in some respects they lack political acumen.
Indeed, one of the only periods over the last year in which the Greens have successfully generated headlines was when Ramsay campaigned against the construction of pylons in his constituency, which are needed to carry renewable electricity from offshore windfarms.
This was a ridiculous political blunder, which allowed Labour to smear the newly elected Greens as unserious Nimbys.
Polanski more aware of the current political mood
Zack Polanski, by contrast, seems far more aware of the current political mood in the country, and is pitching to make the Green Party far bolder and more proactive in calling out inequality and combating the far-right head on.
He has an engaging and polished social media presence and argues that the Greens need to be more willing to ‘break the rules’ of conventional politics and not shy away from controversy.
In that regard, Polanski has acknowledged that there are important lessons to be learnt from Nigel Farage, who is undeniably a master of generating attention and gaming the media – his savvy use of TikTok in recent years has even helped Reform to reach a segment of younger voters. Despite never holding elected office until last year, Farage has become so notorious as the grinning, pint-swilling face of Britain’s far-right that he was even a contestant on the 2023 series of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!
If the Greens are to succeed in exerting the same kind of pressure on Labour as UKIP exerted on the Tories a decade ago, learning from Farage will certainly be advantageous.
Of course, that doesn’t mean aping Reform’s odious politics or embracing their shameless corruption – mistakes that Labour is now making. But, by being bolder at communicating and better reflecting the public frustration with the economic and political elite, Polanski’s ‘eco-populist’ vision should enable the Greens to channel that energy into progressive support, undercutting the threat of Reform.
Ramsay announces new partnership
Denyer has announced that she won’t be contesting the upcoming leadership election, wishing to focus on her role as an MP.
Ramsay has announced that he’s standing alongside the North Herefordshire MP Ellie Chowns for joint co-leadership; the pair contrasted their pitch to Polanski’s fiery ecopopulism with a campaign launch video that looks like it was focus-grouped by a team of political consultants calling from 2005, and a message that seems to be about making the Greens ‘credible’ in the eyes of the media and political establishment.
The recent local election results, in which Reform was the major beneficiary and the Greens’ gains were modest at best, make a strong case for Polanski’s bid.
Time will tell whether he can flip that picture.
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