Huge congratulations to Zack Polanski, new leader of the Green Party, elected with a truly resounding majority earlier today. And what a campaign it was! Green Party leadership elections take place every couple of years and, frankly, they’re often closer to a coronation than a competition. Not this time.
All of the candidates, Polanski, together with MPs Ellie Chowns and Adrian Ramsay, who were making a co-leadership bid, have spent four months criss-crossing the country, speaking to packed public meetings, appearing at noisy hustings, and dashing to studios for in-depth TV debates.
These are new political times. The two-party system is over. The Labour government’s shift to the right, its unforgivable failures on Gaza, its inability to set out a vision of a better society and, above all, its abject refusal to take on Reform UK – capitulating, rather than confronting, its populist poison and lies – has led to a huge space opening up to their left. The role of the Greens will therefore be more important than ever, with real consequences for the shifting political landscape.
That means the expectations on the Green Party leader will be higher than ever, too. Fortunately, Polanski has unprecedentedly strong foundations on which to build. We are now a party with our highest-ever membership, highest-ever polling average, highest-ever general election result, and highest-ever number of MPs and councillors.
Top of Polanski’s priorities must be to support the party riding this wave with a Green breakthrough in Wales – and it’s significant that he has announced he’ll be in Cardiff on Saturday to help the Greens win our first Senedd seat.
His inbox will also be flooded with requests from the 40-odd seats where, as well as winning four MPs at the last election, the Greens came second. Supporting campaigns in these constituencies over the next few years must be a major leadership priority. Polanski will need all his skill and genuine charm if he’s to chart a course that allows the party both to broaden its grassroots appeal and to keep the laser focus that has delivered recent electoral gains.
Meanwhile, the questions that are already being asked about the Green Party’s relationship with the new party set up by Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn will only grow louder. While not a decision for the leadership alone (indeed, the leadership role in the Green Party is more about communications than policy and strategy), the tone Polanski adopts will be crucial.
And his job will be made more challenging by the fact that many in the party feel they’ve had their fingers burned in the past, when electoral cooperation appeared to be understood by the larger parties as being equivalent to the Greens standing down – an outcome that no Greens want to see repeated.
Yet unless those parties on the left and in the centre are prepared to at least explore areas of common interest, there are real risks that Reform UK unites the right, resulting in the gut-wrenching prospect of Nigel Farage as the next prime minister.
The Green Party leadership candidates and the entire party are united behind wanting to stop that prospect – and while it’s still early days to be talking about cooperation with a party that doesn’t even have a name, keeping doors open should be top of Polanski’s political inbox.
His willingness to talk will no doubt prompt a lot of email inbox traffic, but leadership is about having a clear vision and taking others with you – so I am sure he will work hard to do just that. He’ll also be inundated with messages from people wanting to offer their practical help, support and expertise – and that’s going to be welcome. There’s a lot that needs to change about our country and our politics, and we need to be ambitious about engaging big coalitions of people in that work as well as ambitious about what can be achieved.
The Green Party conference in Bournemouth next month – on course to be one of the biggest ever – will be an important moment to unite the party behind his leadership. An ambitious “Path to Parliament” strategy will be unveiled there, which is likely to receive widespread backing and will start to identify Green rising stars and the next generation of MPs.
It will also demonstrate that we’re ready to go head to head with Reform at next May’s local elections, and to beat them and Labour. By juggling the demand for speaking to national audiences with nurturing individuals and local parties, Polanski can play to his many strengths and bring to life that vital and yet often very intangible political ingredient about which he has spoken so meaningfully – hope.
Caroline Lucas is a former leader of the Green Party, and vice-president of Parliamentary CND
