Zack Polanski has said he will remain leader of the Green Party, rejecting resignation calls that followed his defeat in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Polanski said he would “absolutely” stay in post and that he had “of course” not questioned doing so. “Of course I can carry on as leader of the Green Party,” he said when asked whether he would step down.
Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali took the London seat, which had previously been held by former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, with 45% of the vote against Polanski’s 33%. The Green share of the vote nevertheless rose by 22% compared with the 2024 general election.
The Greens had hoped to win the constituency following a by-election success earlier in the year.
Resignation calls from within party
Vivien Lichtenstein, who leads the Jewish Greens, said on Friday that Polanski “should resign”, describing it as a “big mistake” that he had avoided a debate on a party conference motion that declared Zionism a form of racism.
She told Times Radio: “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.”
Her comments echoed former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, who said Polanski had failed to show leadership over the row and should have been present for Sunday’s vote on the motion. Lucas called the motion “dangerous” and “flawed from top to bottom”, and when asked whether Polanski should stand down told BBC Newsnight: “I think let’s just see what happens in the coming days and weeks. Obviously he has been completely taken up with this by-election.”
Jonathan Bartley, who served as Green co-leader from 2016 to 2021, urged Polanski to “put his hands up” and “say sorry” but stopped short of calling for his resignation. “I think [the vote] was a failure of leadership from Zack and there is a certain toxicity now from the Green Party,” he told BBC Radio 4’s World at One.
Motion described as official party policy
The motion, passed by rank-and-file members, defined Zionism as an ideology supporting “an ethnonationalist Jewish state” and backed a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine”, which includes modern-day Israel.
Polanski defended not attending the vote in Brighton on the grounds that he was campaigning in the North London constituency. He said: “Yes I’ve taken a loss tonight but our movement is so much bigger than one election or one motion.”
After declining to answer questions about the Zionism vote for much of the week, he confirmed in Friday interviews that he would only have backed the “imperfect” motion had it been amended with caveats. He said the “substantial part of the motion”, that “the displacement and genocide of the Palestinian people is clearly underpinned by a racist ideology”, was “obvious”.
Several UN reports have accused the Israeli government of committing war crimes amounting to genocide in Gaza. Israel has repeatedly denied all such allegations.
Supporters of the motion had wanted Polanski to state explicitly that it now constituted party policy.
Pressure from MPs and beyond
Four of the five Green MPs and one of the party’s two deputy leaders opposed the motion. The Green deputy in Wales and some councillors resigned, while some local members and the European Green Party distanced themselves from it.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has called on Polanski to reverse the “completely wrong” motion so that it does not remain party policy or enter the next election manifesto.
Labour chair Bridget Phillipson compared the situation to her own party’s previous antisemitism scandal, telling BBC Breakfast she believed the Greens now face a “serious problem” with antisemitism.
Polanski has said anti-Zionism and antisemitism are distinct, and that nobody will be excluded from the party because of their faith, place of worship or religious body.
The party’s next scheduled leadership ballot is due in summer 2027, when members would decide whether to re-elect Polanski should he remain leader until then.
COMMENTS