Polanski vows to stay on as Green leader as criticism mounts
Polanski insists he will remain Green leader after Holborn defeat
Ninoda.com – Zack Polanski has ruled out stepping down as leader of the Green Party after finishing second to Labour in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, despite mounting criticism over his response to a disputed party motion on Zionism.
The contest took place in the London constituency formerly represented by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali won with 45% of the vote, while Polanski received 33%. Although the Greens did not capture the seat they had hoped to win, their share of the vote rose by 22 percentage points compared with the 2024 general election.
Speaking after the result, Polanski made clear that he did not see the by-election loss as a reason to reconsider his leadership.
“Absolutely,” he said when asked whether he would continue as leader, adding that he had not questioned his position.
The result offers a mixed picture for the Greens. Labour retained a high-profile seat, but the scale of the Green increase underlined the party’s ability to attract support in parts of London. At the same time, the campaign unfolded while an internal dispute over Middle East policy exposed tensions among senior figures and grassroots members.
Pressure over conference policy
The immediate controversy centres on a motion approved by party members at the Green Party conference. The measure made Zionism an official subject of party policy, defining it as an ideology that supports “an ethnonationalist Jewish state”. It also backed the creation of a single democratic Palestinian state across historic Palestine, an area that includes present-day Israel.
Polanski did not take part in the conference vote. After avoiding detailed public comment for much of the week, he said on Friday that he would not have supported the motion in its existing form because it was “imperfect” and required amendments.
He also argued that the treatment of Palestinians must be confronted directly.
“The displacement and genocide of the Palestinian people is clearly underpinned by a racist ideology,” Polanski said.
Israel has repeatedly rejected allegations that it has committed genocide in Gaza. A number of United Nations reports have accused the Israeli government of war crimes that amount to genocide.
Questions about the motion have become a test of Polanski’s authority because it is now official Green Party policy, even though he has said he would not have voted for it unchanged. Critics inside the party argue that this leaves him in an uncomfortable position: leading an organisation while publicly distancing himself from one of its most contentious decisions.
Jewish Greens leader calls for resignation
Vivien Lichtenstein, who leads the Jewish Greens, said Polanski should resign. She criticised his decision not to engage sooner with debate around the motion and said he had made a serious error by avoiding the issue.
“I don’t know which Jewish members of the party he’s been working with – it certainly hasn’t been with the Jewish Greens committee,” Lichtenstein said.
Her intervention followed criticism from Caroline Lucas, the former Green Party leader, who said Polanski should have attended the vote. Lucas described the motion as dangerous and fundamentally flawed.
When asked whether Polanski ought to leave his post, Lucas stopped short of demanding his resignation. She said the coming days and weeks would matter, noting that he had been heavily occupied by the by-election campaign.
Later, Lucas softened the tone of her intervention by praising what she said Polanski had achieved for the party. She wrote that his leadership had “transformed the party” and expressed hope that he would help deal with major challenges and reform internal structures.
Israel question intensifies scrutiny
Polanski also faced sustained questioning about whether he believes Israel has a right to exist. He responded by focusing on the rights of Israelis and Palestinians rather than providing the direct yes-or-no answer requested.
“I don’t believe any state has the right to oppress or to commit apartheid and certainly not genocide on another people,” he said. “I don’t believe that’s a state that anyone should be supporting.”
He added that his position was based on equal rights.
“I’ve repeated many times that I want to see equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians - at the moment Palestinians don’t have equal rights so I think I’m answering your question really clearly.”
For Polanski’s supporters, the comments reflect a determination to centre Palestinian rights and challenge Israeli government policy. For opponents, his reluctance to answer the question in the requested terms has increased concern that the party’s language on Israel and Zionism risks alienating Jewish members and voters.
A difficult leadership moment
Some longstanding Green figures privately describe Polanski as having been absent when clearer leadership was needed. They believe he risks losing the trust of members on both sides of the argument: those who wanted him to condemn the motion more forcefully and those who wanted him to defend it.
Jonathan Bartley, who served as Green co-leader between 2016 and 2021, called for Polanski to acknowledge his mistakes and apologise, though he did not say that the leader should resign.
“I think [the vote] was a failure of leadership from Zack and there is a certain toxicity now from the Green Party,” Bartley said.
Despite the criticism, Polanski may be protected in the short term by strong support among party activists. The Holborn and St Pancras result also gives him evidence that the Greens can make electoral gains even in difficult contests against Labour.
His next challenge will be to turn that electoral momentum into a clearer internal settlement. The dispute has raised wider questions about how the Greens handle divisive foreign-policy issues, how party conference decisions are communicated, and whether the leadership can rebuild confidence among members who feel unheard.
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