Zack Polanski has been decisively elected chief of the Inexperienced Celebration, however who’s he and what does he stand for?
Regardless of beforehand serving as deputy chief of the occasion, Mr Polanski, 42, was seen all through the marketing campaign as an rebel candidate, providing change for the Greens.
By comparability, his management rivals Adrian Ramsay and Dr Ellie Chowns had been seen as being the candidates of continuity, slightly than change.
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Mr Polanski, who will not be an MP however is a member of the London Meeting, gained 20,411 votes – in comparison with the three,705 ballots forged for Mr Ramsay and Dr Chowns, who ran on a joint ticket.
It means his imaginative and prescient of making an “eco-populist” Inexperienced Celebration, with a extra seen mass-membership motion, has been decisively endorsed by those that voted – albeit if this was solely 37% of these eligible to forged a poll.
So, who’s Zack Polanski?
Born David Paulden, he modified his identify when he turned 18 to his grandfather’s authentic surname.
He grew up in Salford, initially attending a grammar college on a scholarship earlier than switching to a complete faculty. Mr Polanski then attended college in Wales and later in america.
The Inexperienced Celebration chief is homosexual and thanked his accomplice following his victory. He’s additionally vegan and lives in Hackney, east London.
His political profession started not with the Inexperienced Celebration, however with the Liberal Democrats, which he joined first, standing for the occasion as a councillor in north London in 2015 and once more for the Lib Dems as a London Meeting candidate in 2016.
Mr Polanski gained with a vote of 20,411 members
However he switched allegiance the next yr, becoming a member of the Greens and being elected a member of the London Meeting in 2021, after an unsuccessful try to be elected as an MP in 2019.
Mr Polanski was then elected deputy chief of the Inexperienced Celebration in 2022.
Whereas deputy chief, he was additionally re-elected again to the London Meeting in 2024 and have become chair of the London Meeting atmosphere committee.
However Mr Polanski’s rise to the highest of the Greens will not be with out controversy.
In 2013, he ran a hypnotherapy observe and served a Solar journalist who went in as a consumer, asking him whether or not he might make her suppose herself to having greater boobs.
Mr Polanski has since apologised for his previous actions, telling LBC final yr that it “doesn’t symbolize my work, it doesn’t symbolize me”.
Mr Polanski rejected the imaginative and prescient of continuity supplied by management rivals Dr Ellie Chowns and former chief, Adrian Ramsay. Pic: PA
He introduced he would run to be chief of the Inexperienced Celebration within the 2025 contest, which was delayed by a yr in order to not conflict with the 2024 normal election. Members of the occasion are requested to vote on the leaders each two years.
What does he stand for?
Mr Polanski pledged to result in an “eco-populist” imaginative and prescient if elected, reworking the occasion right into a extra seen, mass-membership motion.
He stated folks can not give attention to the local weather disaster if they’re dealing with difficult financial issues, so he has advocated for top taxes on billionaires – together with a wealth tax – in addition to the renationalisation of water corporations and extra regulation for companies.
At a hustings in July, he argued that the occasion ought to mix “substance with clickbait” to convey a severe problem to Reform UK.
Mr Polanski has criticised the Labour authorities over a spread of insurance policies, from cuts to its stance on the warfare in Gaza. Pic: PA
He has outlined a imaginative and prescient for the Greens to enchantment to progressive left voters who really feel that Labour has turned away from them below Sir Keir Starmer’s management.
In contrast to his management rivals, Mr Polanski has additionally refused to rule out working with the brand new political occasion based by former Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn and ex-Labour MP Zarah Sultana.
Talking following his election, Mr Polanski promised to “work each single day to ship environmental, social, racial and financial justice”.
He additionally pledged to develop the occasion, saying he would love the Greens to win at the very least 30 seats on the subsequent normal election, in addition to get extra MSs elected to the Senedd in Cardiff.
Mr Polanski hit out at “charlatans like Nigel Farage”, accusing him and different millionaires of “pretending to serve working-class communities” whereas “destroying our democracies”. However he additionally warned the Labour Celebration that the Greens are “right here to switch you”.
