Polanski says he will stay as Green leader after by-election defeat and Zionism row

Mixed · 2Zack Polanski has said he will stay on as Green Party leader after losing the Holborn and St Pancras by-election to Labour, while facing calls from within the party to resign. 1 2 Mixed · 2Labour's Sagal Abdi-Wali, the Camden Council leader, won the seat previously held by Sir Keir Starmer. The Mirror gives the result as 12,292 votes to Polanski's 8,928, and the BBC as 45% to 33%, with the Green share up 22% on the 2024 general election. 1 2 Centre · 1The defeat follows a row over a motion passed by rank-and-file members at the party conference in Brighton. It defined Zionism as an ideology supporting "an ethnonationalist Jewish state" and backed a "single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine". Polanski did not attend the vote, saying they were campaigning in the by-election. 1

Mixed · 2Vivien Lichtenstein, who leads the Jewish Greens, told Times Radio that Polanski "should resign". The Mirror adds that she called Polanski's absence a "dereliction of duty" and said she is considering leaving the party herself. 1 2 Centre · 1Former leader Caroline Lucas called the motion "dangerous" and said Polanski should have attended the vote, but when asked whether Polanski should stand down she said "let's just see what happens in the coming days and weeks". Former co-leader Jonathan Bartley called it a "failure of leadership" and urged Polanski to apologise, without demanding they quit. 1 Mixed · 2Polanski told BBC Breakfast they would "absolutely" stay on and said: "Yes I've taken a loss tonight but our movement is so much bigger than one election or one motion." They cited membership growth from about 60,000 to 220,000 and the party's two best by-election results under their leadership, and told Sky News their future is up to members at the leadership election next summer. 1 2

Mixed · 2Polanski said they would have voted for the "imperfect" motion only if it had been amended with caveats, and that anti-Zionism and antisemitism are distinct. Green peer Jenny Jones said the party does not "depose leaders by gossip and criticism". 1 2 Mixed · 2The BBC reports that four of the five Green MPs and one of two deputy leaders opposed the motion, that the Green deputy in Wales and some councillors resigned, and that Prime Minister Andy Burnham urged Polanski to reverse it. Labour chair Bridget Phillipson said the Greens have a "serious problem" with antisemitism, and Labour MP Luke Akehurst said voters had "decisively rejected the Greens" over the motion. 1 2