Zack Polanski lifts The Green Party past 200,000 members
The green party has grown from 68,000 members to more than 200,000 under Zack Polanski, as its local election gains reached 441 new councillors. Last Thursday’s results also lifted the party to more than 1,000 councillors and full control of four councils for the first time.
That expansion came with a shift in how the party is being read by voters. A month before the election, a YouGov poll found 38 per cent of people considering the Greens said policies and values not related to the environment were their main reason to vote Green, while the share naming climate change fell from 49 per cent to 22 per cent in the last year.
Zack Polanski and Gorton
Polanski’s leadership has also followed a national rise in Green support after victory in the Gorton and Denton byelection, when the party polled as the most popular party nationally among all age groups under 50. The membership increase and the election results have given the party a larger base in councils as well as in its internal organisation.
Zoë Garbett became the first Green mayor in Hackney, and the party took full control of councils in Norwich, Hackney, Waltham Forest and Hastings. Lewisham council, which Labour had held for 55 years, also fell to the Greens.
Climate Outreach leaflets
Climate Outreach analysed more than 10,000 words and 40 pages of Green Party leaflets since Polanski’s first conference speech as leader. The group found only one mention of climate change, zero mentions of net zero, seven mentions of the environment and one of nature, alongside 52 mentions of water companies, 19 mentions of bus services and 18 mentions of local green spaces.
The party’s statement of core values, decided in autumn 2022, describes the Greens as “a party of social and environmental justice, which supports a radical transformation of society for the benefit of all, and for the planet as a whole.” It also says the party sees threats to economic, social and environmental wellbeing as part of the same problem.
Green policy and members
A party official told Peter Walker that changing Green policy would take time, saying: “It isn’t a single motion, it’s an 18-month process.” The question now is whether the party can keep the new members, the council gains and the wider vote share aligned while it balances climate policy with the broader issues now appearing more often in its leaflets and polling.
