This is the Green party’s moment – not Farage’s. As leader, I’ll offer real solutions to Britain’s problems | Zack Polanski

2 weeks ago 27

This is the most dangerous political moment in my lifetime. Not only is our economy in dire trouble, with the cost of basic goods shooting up again and again, but trust in those running the country is at a record low. These are the conditions in which far-right politics festers. With the help of his friends in some of the media, Nigel Farage is feeding off that anger.

This is the Green party’s moment. We know Keir Starmer shuffling the deckchairs this week is not the real change we need. We are not here just to be concerned or disappointed with this Labour government. We are here to replace it.

Things have to change, and it’s my job as the new leader of the Green party to work with communities, bring people together and turn anger into hope.

Most people know one thing about the Greens: that we care about the environment. And this won’t change. But increasingly, and in every corner of this country, people are voting for us because we’re the only party talking about everyday solutions and pointing the finger at those who are causing the real problems we face.

It’s actually fairly simple. For years now, the very richest in society have accumulated more and more wealth. While they sleep at night, the money pours in, not from work, but from assets such as stocks, shares and multiple properties. The wealthiest 1% of households in this country hold a greater proportion than that held by the least wealthy 50%.

And while that tiny proportion at the top gets richer, our NHS is buckling, disability benefits are under threat and the two-child benefit cap threatens to push hundreds of thousands of kids into poverty.

The UK’s economy is on its knees. GDP growth, the scorecard on which this government wants to be marked, is crawling along at just 1.2% this year. For most of us, the squeeze is relentless. Tenants are handing over nearly half their wages in rent. The Trussell Trust says at least 9.3 million people are going hungry, a third of whom are children. Food inflation is at an 18-month high. And all this is happening under a Labour government – and with little prospect of things getting better.

It can’t go on like this. Under my leadership, the Green party is going to be relentless in our opposition to a politics that favours the super-wealthy over the rest of us. That’s why the first people I will meet as leader today will be trade unionists: cleaners, carers and hospital porters. That’s why whenever you hear from us, you’ll hear our calls for a wealth tax, our demand for public ownership of water companies and our pledge to make childcare universal and free.

Zack Polanski at a demonstration outside the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, London, 30 September 2025.

We know that the ongoing climate crisis will be devastating for our communities, but we’re here to harness the imagination, the hope and the vision of what an alternative looks like: new jobs in public services, communities that people love and a council housing programme that makes sure no one is left sleeping rough.

I disagree with Reform UK and Farage on almost everything. But they’re correct to point at our politics and say it has failed. What they refuse to admit is that it’s their wealthy backers, including fossil-fuel finance, who have fanned the flames of the crises we face now.

In coming votes – whether local and assembly elections next year or the general election when it next comes – people in this country will face a stark choice. Do they stick with a tired, failed politics of a Labour party that has abandoned its principles one by one? Do they opt for Farage’s financiers? Or do they choose a Green party that has a plan to improve lives and turn this country around?

At the last election, a record number of nearly 2 million people voted Green, leading to 40 second-place finishes – our central mission is to turn them into new Green MPs. Along with our councillors across the country, that’s how we turn our country around.

Right now, more than one in 10 people say they’d vote Green in a general election. And, yes, I am going to significantly build on that. But my politics is also about community; about grassroots movements. Millions of people are desperate for change and angry that those elected are not acting in their interests. I’m ready to build ideas with them and give them a political voice. I am here to offer bold leadership and to fight for a country where no one is left behind.