Zack Polanski refuses to overturn Zionism motion as pressure grows

Zack Polanski is trying to keep his leadership of the Green Party of England and Wales together after a difficult by-election and a row over the party's new policy on Zionism.

Labour's Sagal Abdiwali won the Holborn and St Pancras by-election with 12,292 votes, a 45% share. Polanski came second with 8,928 votes, about a third of the total, and Labour's majority was 3,364. The Greens pointed to a 13% swing to them and their second best by-election result, but the contest was widely read as a setback for a leader who had put himself at the centre of the campaign. Comparisons with the 2024 general election suggested the Greens had absorbed a pro-Palestinian independent vote but had not taken a significant share from Labour.

The row centres on a motion passed at the party's Brighton conference declaring Zionism is racism and calling for a single democratic Palestinian state in historic Palestine, including modern-day Israel. It passed by 1,022 votes to 813, with about 0.4% of members taking part. Polanski left the conference early to campaign and missed the vote. He later said he would have voted against the motion unamended and that he disagreed with parts of it, especially a one-state solution. He said he had wanted amendments on two grounds, but they fell. In other interviews he said he agreed with the substance of the motion but not with the party deciding the future of the region.

Polanski also refused to give a direct yes or no when pressed on whether Israel has a right to exist. He said Israelis and Palestinians should have equal rights in a democracy and described Israel as a one-state apartheid state. He said he grew up in a Zionist household and had been taught the idea of 'a land without a people and a people without a land', which he no longer accepted. He rejected the suggestion that he was dodging the question.

In later interviews, Polanski said he would not try to overturn the conference motion. He wants to amend it at the first opportunity to move away from a one-state proposal and let Israelis and Palestinians decide the future. Under party rules, conference policy lasts two years. He said he would not change the rules, adding: 'I'm not an out of control autocrat like some of the leaders of the Labour Party.'

Criticism has come from senior figures. Former leader Caroline Lucas said Polanski showed a failure of leadership by missing the vote and that the jury was out on whether he would now show leadership; she later clarified she was not calling for him to resign. The chair of Jewish Greens, Vivian Lichtenstein, said she had no confidence in him at present and that he should apologise or resign. Joshua Alston, a former Jewish Greens policy officer, resigned so he could speak out and called Polanski's conduct cowardly and poor leadership. Ellie Chowns, the party's Westminster leader, said she would have liked Polanski to be clearer before the vote. Other figures described the situation as untenable and warned of toxicity.

Deputy leader Rachel Millward defended Polanski. She said the by-election result was the party's second best ever and that the Greens had increased their vote by 22%. She argued that the party's rapid growth meant its policy processes and structures needed modernising, and she rejected calls for Polanski to resign. She also said she voted against the motion.

Polanski insists he will stay. The Greens elect their leader every two years, and he said his future would be decided by members in a leadership election next summer. Labour presented the result as a vindication of Andy Burnham's leadership, while Green critics said the Zionism row had overshadowed the party's environmental message and damaged its public standing.