And Reform’s rise has created an appetite too. On the left, there is rising anxiety about Nigel Farage’s success. Whether in the Gorton by-election or beyond, one Green MP tells me their equation for winning votes is getting voters who feel “A) I hate Labour; B) I want to stop Reform – so that has to equal the Greens”.
He might be lucky with the timing, but there is no doubt Polanski is playing a good game with the hand he’s been dealt. One of the party’s MPs enthuses: “We are a happy party!” – something you don’t hear that much these days.
But you can hear a hint of nerves around the edges about Polanski’s more vigorous, edgy style. In recent years, the Greens have managed to appeal to metropolitan voters, with progressive ideals, or – to use a term Polanski is happy to embrace – “woke” values. At the same time, they have found support in rural constituencies that might be more socially conservative but have concerns about housing developments, planning or the state of the countryside.
Does Polanski’s bolder style work both ways? One party source tells me existing Green voters “need reassurance we have the same values …they want to see a grown-up approach”.
One of the party’s handful of MPs acknowledges some eyebrows have been raised, saying they have had a “tiny, tiny, tiny handful of emails saying I’m a bit concerned about your leader – but he is a huge overall positive – we might lose 1% from a previous demographic that might find Zack a little bit much, but I’m intensely relaxed”.
Polanski might be new in post, but he’s not new to the Greens, having been a member since 2017 and represented the party in the London Assembly. If you have a nerd-like political brain, you might remember he was a Liberal Democrat before that. A big backer of the coalition government, who even belted out Marvin Gaye on the Lib Dem conference stage and attempted to stand in the leafy south-west London constituency of Richmond Park.
