Sam FrancisPolitical reporter
In the month since self-proclaimed “eco-populist” Zack Polanski took charge of the Green Party of England and Wales, there has been a noticeable change within the party.
With over 20,000 new members in recent months, the Green Party is the largest it has ever been.
The party appears to be trying to shed its image as well-meaning eco-warriors to become an insurgent force.
While there appears to be momentum within the party, in a splintered political landscape there is a question mark over how the Greens can turn this into votes.
When campaigning to become Green Party leader, Polanski promised to “pick fights”.
On the eve of his first conference as leader, Polanski was argumentative during an interview on the Radio 4’s Today programme when pushed to defend his deputy Mothin Ali over inflammatory comments he had made about an Israeli army reservist.
This willingness to create controversy – if it wins attention and cuts through to the public – has been embraced by his party.
Boldness is needed to combat voter disillusionment and rising right-wing populism, argues Rachel Millward, Polanski’s other deputy co-leader.
“I guess I can’t see the point of not going as big as you can go,” says Millward.
“If we stay timid, we might gain nothing.
“Whereas, if we’re bold we definitely gain people because it resonates because it’s true and it’s real and people are craving that honesty.”
The Green Party’s head of elections, Chris Williams, oversaw the Greens’ best-ever general election campaign last year – it gave the party four MPs for the first time by tailoring and targeting campaigns in both Tory and Labour heartlands.
But he is now recalibrating the party’s approach to reflects Polanski’s leadership style.
“To tailor an old adage: if you try to annoy nobody you don’t excite anybody,” is how he puts it.
The Green Party see on opportunity to build on the momentum.
With increased belief comes more members, more donations “the campaigns get bigger, and the targets grow, and we win more seats, and we just build upwards and keep on going”, Williams argues.
The UK’s shifting electoral landscape, is also bringing growing opportunity, Williams says.
“By-elections are being won with just 27% of the vote.
“The swings we need are smaller – instead of climbing Everest, we’re having to climb Snowdon now in order to win a constituency.”
The party has already picked a raft of so-called “development constituencies” in Tory and Labour held areas across the country, though the targets are predominantly urban where traditional parties like Labour and the Conservatives are shedding votes fastest, Williams says.
Some members warn a shift away from localised strategy could risk alienating the very voters who delivered the breakthrough wins in 2024.
The party’s two current MPs in rural areas could be particularly exposed – ex-leader Adrian Ramsay in Waveney Valley, on the border of Suffolk and Norfolk, and Ellie Chowns in North Herefordshire.
Ramsay and Chowns also ran on a joint ticket against Polanski, picking up just 16% of the vote.
On the ground, Millward – who co-leads the predominantly rural Wealden District Council – insists the countryside vote is not at risk.
“We’ve had more new members coming in, even in our rural area,” Millward says.
For all their ideological differences, the Green Party is watching Reform UK as a case study in how to win attention and turn it into electoral support.
A well-attended panel discussion on “how to stop Reform” at conference was notable for the number of members praising the work of the Green’s foe Nigel Farage.
Members argued for copying a playbook of simple messaging, emotional appeal and a willingness to provoke – albeit with different content.
In his leader’s speech, Polanski said: “If Reform can rocket through the polls with a politics of despair, then it’s time for the Green Party to do the same thing with a politics of hope.”
But the Green Party’s electoral strategy is being reshaped not just by the rise of Reform UK.
There’s a risk that Your Party, the emerging political force led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, could take the wind out of the Green Party’s sails.
At 82,000 members the Green Party is the biggest it has ever been. For context Your Party claims to have had more than 600,000 sign-ups in the weeks after it launched.
For Millward, all this proves is “Labour’s lost its support on the left”.
“And we are actually gaining from that as well – so it’s not like a net loss to us.”
The Greens have long relied on grassroots energy and volunteer labour. They now have more members to call on, but for a party trying to scale up from protest politics to serious electoral force money matters.
Behind the scenes, Millward and others are pushing for a bolder approach to fundraising.
She used her conference speech to argue they will be the party of “fivers” – emulating the micro-donations successes of US figures like Barak Obama and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The party also needs to become “bold enough to ask” sympathetic donors that have sustained big parties like the Conservatives, Labour and Reform, she says.
“We’re not talking about being funded by corruptive billionaires, but there are people who are with us and who would like a change.”
The 2026 local elections will be a key test for the Greens.
The party is aiming to hold a record 900 council seats when they contest a series of nominal strongholds, in London, Brighton and Huddersfield.
The party is also talking up their chances in taking over new combined authority contests in Sussex, and in Norfolk and Suffolk.
In Wales, they have high hopes the new proportional representation voting system will allow the party to gain a foothold in the Senedd.
But fractured multi-party voting in a first past-the-post electoral system in England and Wales can lead to unpredictable results.
It is clear the Green Party leadership see a path to victory.
They must now see if voters will reward “picking fights” with electoral success or a bloody nose.
