Polanski’s Greens look for their next opening

BRIGHTON, England  — Green leader Zack Polanski has claimed credit for Andy Burnham’s recent arrival in No. 10. Now he’s trying to convince people that his party can still do more to move national politics. In his second speech as head of the left-wing populist party — and less than a week before his personal brand is tested at the polls in Holborn and St Pancras, where he’s fighting to snag Keir Starmer’s recently vacated Westminster seat — Polanski positioned his party as a corrective, not a spoiler. “Vote Green, and watch Labour move,” was his message. “Between general elections, we change the government.” Polanski added: “Through our sustained pressure — and our historic wins — we have held the worst instincts of the Labour government in check. And started to move them in the right direction.” The Labour washout in May’s local elections, courtesy of voter defections to right-wing populist Reform UK as well as to the Greens, accelerated Starmer’s exit as prime minister over the summer. Burnham has since promised many of the things that under Starmer were within the Greens’ sole purview — public ownership, care, and housing. The task for the Green leader now is to decide where to push Labour next. “It won’t surprise you to hear that I’m not hopeful about Labour’s backbone,” he told the crowd. Hackney Mayor Zoë Garbett, who won her job in May’s local elections, said there were still “key differences” with the governing party, particularly on Gaza, climate and rent control — but conceded that Burnham had made it more difficult for the Green message. She said: “People were so fed up in May, they were done with people making promises and not delivering, but we need to put forward what our vision is as well, that’s what this conference and Zack’s speech is about.” Then there’s North London Walking on stage to Calvin Harris’ Let’s Go, Polanski’s galvanizing energy seemed to convince even some of the skeptics. “He brought the fire,” said one Green activist on exiting the conference hall, “in a way they’re not really bringing the fire in Holborn.” Campaigners have been fretting that the Greens haven’t done enough to “bring Burnham back down to earth.” One told POLITICO that next week’s vote would force the party to grapple with its failure to reckon with the new prime minister. Polanski’s speech went some way towards defining how he might do this. He went hard on rent caps, the proscription of Palestine Action, and new drilling in Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields. And in doing so, he took the first steps toward clarifying where the new battleground is. More in Common pollster Luke Tryl said that after being hit by the Burnham bounce and Polanski’s tumbling ratings, the Greens “need to make sure they don’t lose sight of the environment.” Polanski seems to agree. “Our differences with this Labour government could not be clearer,” he said in Brighton, “While they play politics with our planet — we stick to the science. While Andy Burnham barely whispers the word climate — we seek urgent action.” That was the one time Polanski mentioned the new prime minister’s name, as he joked that the outcome of the post-wildfire government COBRA meeting was to ban outdoor grills. The Green leader, currently a member of the London Assembly, also attacked Labour MPs for voting for the proscription of Palestine Action. “Our MPs didn’t troop through the yes lobby. Our MPs were cowed by fear or malicious attacks in the press. They stood up for the principles we hold so dear,” he said. Polanski is trying to position the party as the full-fat version of Burnham’s “end of neoliberalism” offering. This was set out in a strategy document earlier this summer, according to the Guardian, “He is really speaking to what a lot of those disillusioned progressives wanted from Labour, and the reason why they left,” Tryl told POLITICO, arguing that the Greens should focus on the cost-of-living crisis and the environment as areas where they can claw back support. A “timid budget” would “offer the opportunity for the Greens to come back in,” he said. Tryl warned, however, about the “barnacles” on the party that may drive voters away, like a “Zionism is Racism” motion set to be debated Sunday. Amid those debates on whether the party takes on a more radical agenda, Tryl said: “The question for Greens is do you want to be a pressure group that is pushing Labour to the left, or do you want to beat them outright.”