Green leadership hopefuls set out fight for frustrated Labour supporters' votes

South Wales Guardian

2 days ago

The party's incumbent co-leader Adrian Ramsay, who is running jointly with North Herefordshire MP Ellie Chowns, called for a 'bold and practical' strategy which puts the Greens' 'wilderness years' behind them.
Challenging them, Mr Ramsay's current deputy Zack Polanski claimed 'bold messaging at the national level' had been 'missing' from his party's high offices.
Green Party members began voting on August 1 and are halfway through the process, with polls closing on August 30.
'One of our top priorities, absolutely, is winning over support from people who are utterly disillusioned with Labour,' Mr Ramsay told the PA news agency.
'But there will also be people from other parts of the political spectrum who are also feeling politically homeless, deeply care about the environment, want to see our services restored.
'And in the era of politics that we're now in, there are so many people who don't think about politics in old left-right terms, and we need to be the ones that are showing what Greens stand for – for social justice and for a liveable future for people and planet.'
Mr Ramsay, the Waveney Valley MP, said the Greens under his leadership would move to tackle 'inequality and poverty, the decline of our public services, the degradation of our natural environment and the threat of climate breakdown'.
Mr Polanski said his party was 'here ultimately to replace the Labour Government'.
The London City Hall member said: 'In the same way that Reform have really made the Tories collapse, I think there's a huge space for the Green left in this country to galvanise and to take votes away, and to say that we don't have to take second-best and actually you can have a party that's unapologetic about its values – that will stand up for migration, that will stand up for the poorest communities, and will take the fight to wealth and power.'
He added: 'Alongside the Labour Government, of course, Reform are a huge issue for the entire country.
'But I think the problem is a Labour Party pretending to be that antidote to Reform whereas they're just mimicking them.
'And if people want Reform-lite policies, then they'll just vote Reform.'
Under Mr Ramsay's co-leadership with Carla Denyer, with Mr Polanski as their deputy, the party gained 241 council seats in 2023, and picked up a further 74 last year.
The Green Party also secured four seats at the general election.
Mr Polanski pledged to 'continue' with existing efforts but added: 'What has been missing, though, is the bold messaging at the national level, and we need to make sure that before we've even knocked on a door or someone's picked up a leaflet, they already know that the Green Party stand for so much more than the environment.
'Now, the environment is really important to us, it will remain really important to us, but this is about lowering bills, rent controls, making sure that we're funding our public services and taxing the super-wealthy, all measures that are increasingly popular.'
Mr Ramsay warned that Mr Polanski's language was aimed at 'the 'progressive activist' section of the public', who were already convinced by the party's messaging.
He added: 'Having that credibility alongside the distinctive Green policies that we're putting forward is so crucial and it's what's taken us out of the wilderness years that the Green Party was in in my early time in the party.
'I've been in the party 27 years. People used to say, 'Well, I like what you stand for but can you really win? Can you really take on these positions and make a real impact?
'We've demonstrated that now and we've got to continue that route of continuing to build our impact and continuing to build on a record-breaking success and a record-breaking strategy.'
Mr Ramsay said he was 'concerned about the Green Party going down a populist route, given that populism relies on polarising and divisiveness'.
Mr Polanski said: 'The idea that eco-populism is divisive is a fundamental misunderstanding of what it is I'm talking about, which is the 99% versus the 1%.
'Now that 1% are corporations who are destroying our environment, destroying our democracy and destroying our communities, so if it's divisive, it's where the division already is, which is between the super-rich and then everyone else who is working hard with their hands and their brain.'
Ms Denyer, the Bristol Central MP, is not standing for a leadership role.