Zack Polanski faces Ellie Chowns at Green party leadership hustings – UK politics live | Politics
Published: 2025-07-30 18:44:28 | Views: 29
Zack Polanski faces Ellie Chowns at Green party leadership hustings
Andrew Sparrow
Hi, I’m Andrew Sparrow, picking up again from Nadeem Badshah, and blogging from Hoxton Hall in north London, where chairs are being set up into a handsome auditorium for leadership hustings for the Green party of England and Wales. (The Scottish Green party is a separate entitity.) It is due to start at 6.15pm.
There have been quite a few hustings already, and four more are scheduled, but we have not covered the contest much on the Politics Live blog, and we certainly have not reported from a hustings. So tonight it is going to get full attention for two hours.
The Greens are a smallish party, they normally hold leadership contests every two years, often it ends up as a co-leader job share and, because members have much more control over policy and other matters then they do in other parties, the leader or leaders have surprisingly little power. “The primary purpose of the Green party leader is to provide visionary leadership and direction for the party,” is how the party explains it.
But this contest is attracting more interest than most previous Green party leadership elections have. That is partly because the party is stronger than it has ever been before. It has four MPs at Westminster, more than 800 council seats and it is regularly picking up about 10% support in opinion polls.
Where do they go next? That is the other reason why the contest deserves more attention, because the choice facing members is sharper, and spikier, than it normally is in a party with collegiate, herbivore instincts.
On the one side, Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns are running on a ‘more of the same [success]’ platform. They are both MPs, Ramsay is a current co-leader and they say they can “can inspire teams, grow trust and deliver results”. They were both meant to be here tonight, but Ramsay can’t be here because of a family reason. And it is a job share; they have not always appeared together at hustings.
And they are up against Zack Polanski who is running on an “eco-populist” platform promising what is crudely seen as out-Faraging Reform UK from the left. He is a skilled social media performer, and is also widely seen as the favourite - although, because the Greens are a small party (around 65,000 members), they are hard to poll, and no one knows for sure.
Zack Polanski. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian
Ellie Chowns with Adrian Ramsay. Photograph: Ellie & Adrian 2025/PA
Key events
Polanski says leadership contest not about strategy or policy, but who is best communicator
Polanski goes next.
He starts by saying he agrees with Chowns. He says journalists try to suggest there is animosity in the contest. He says he does not accept that; it is an election, they are campaigning, but at the end they will come together.
He talks about his campaigning as a member of the London assembly – on issues like homelessness, accessible transport for the disabled, the quality of social housing, the record of Labour councils. He has backed people on picket lines.
He says people assume London is rich, but there is a lot of poverty.
What I’m really talking about here is the deep inequality that’s happening all across England and Wales, but it’s really prominent in our city.
People think London is a very wealthy place, and there are certainly places that have huge wealth in London ..
And we know as a party that we want to tax multi-millionaires and billionaires, because it is corporations who are destroying our environment, destroying our democracy, and destroying our communities.
Polanski says the Greens agree on strategy and policy.
But the election is about communication, he says. He says that is people should think about when they start voting on Friday.
The central question that is with you tonight is, who do you want communicating for you?
Who do you want on that debate stage, taking it to the prime minister?
Who do you want on the media and who do you want going up and down this country at rallies, in community halls, in faith organisations and community centres, saying it is time for a bold party of environmental, social, racial and economic justice.
Chowns gets to go first with an opening statement.
She starts by saying the venue is amazing (and it is lovely).
She says there have been differences of tone in the contest. But it is important to remember what unites them, she says.
She says her strap line, with Adrian Ramsay, is “together we win”. That is the point. She would not be an MP if it had not been for the 450 people who helped her campaign. She says at least one person in the room, from north London, went to North Herefordshire to campaign for her.
Only in recent years have they learned how to win parliamentary and council seats. That has happened under the leadership of Ramsay and Carla Denyer (who is stepped down as co-leader.) And she mentions Zack Polanski’s contribution too, as deputy leader.
She talks about Green campaigning in parliament:
Who is it in parliament that’s standing up, calling for taxing wealth fairly? Who is it in parliament that’s standing up, calling out our country’s complicity and genocide in Gaza? Who is it in parliament who’s been there at the forefront of the campaigns to reverse the universal credit and Pip bill, to reverse the winter fuel cuts, to campaign for social housing targets – a particular campaign of mine – to fix social care, to have the real climate action that we so desperately need to tackle the climate crisis.
On all of those things. Greens have been at the centre of these debates in parliament, holding government to account in connecting the frustration indeed.
She says that is the leadership she and Ramsay offer.
We’re starting.
Danny Keeling, coordinator of the London Green party, is chairing.
He introduces Zack Polanski and Ellie Chowns.
The hustings will start at 6.30pm, we’ve now been told.
Key developments in Green party leadership contest so far
Here are some of the main stories or articles from the Green party leadership contest so far.
Adam Ramsay, a journalist and Green party member (not related to Adrian), explains in a Guardian article what he thinks the contest is about, and why he prefers Polanksi.
Some longstanding members, Corbynites joining to “back Zack” is scary. Some fear Polanski’s mooted ecopopulism, worrying it will attract people who “aren’t really Green”. Much of this fear isn’t about policy difference, but culture. Older fundi-types who liked Corbyn’s socialism but feared that the movement behind his leadership was a “cult of personality” now have similar worries about Polanski. Chowns and Ramsay, on the other hand, exude the kind of gentle, conflict-averse, consensual leadership style that the fundis used to advocate (sitting uncomfortably with their hyper-realo insistence on the centrality of Westminster). In other words, the Green party division isn’t really so much about left and centre as it is about differing ideas about political power and how to wield it.
For me, Polanski takes the realo acceptance of the need for charismatic leadership and blends it with the fundis’ belief in extraparliamentary organising and social movements.
Ramsay and Chowns tell the Guardian that Polanski’s “eco-populism” would prove polarising, divisive and likely to put off more moderate voters.
Zack Polanski faces Ellie Chowns at Green party leadership hustings
Andrew Sparrow
Hi, I’m Andrew Sparrow, picking up again from Nadeem Badshah, and blogging from Hoxton Hall in north London, where chairs are being set up into a handsome auditorium for leadership hustings for the Green party of England and Wales. (The Scottish Green party is a separate entitity.) It is due to start at 6.15pm.
There have been quite a few hustings already, and four more are scheduled, but we have not covered the contest much on the Politics Live blog, and we certainly have not reported from a hustings. So tonight it is going to get full attention for two hours.
The Greens are a smallish party, they normally hold leadership contests every two years, often it ends up as a co-leader job share and, because members have much more control over policy and other matters then they do in other parties, the leader or leaders have surprisingly little power. “The primary purpose of the Green party leader is to provide visionary leadership and direction for the party,” is how the party explains it.
But this contest is attracting more interest than most previous Green party leadership elections have. That is partly because the party is stronger than it has ever been before. It has four MPs at Westminster, more than 800 council seats and it is regularly picking up about 10% support in opinion polls.
Where do they go next? That is the other reason why the contest deserves more attention, because the choice facing members is sharper, and spikier, than it normally is in a party with collegiate, herbivore instincts.
On the one side, Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns are running on a ‘more of the same [success]’ platform. They are both MPs, Ramsay is a current co-leader and they say they can “can inspire teams, grow trust and deliver results”. They were both meant to be here tonight, but Ramsay can’t be here because of a family reason. And it is a job share; they have not always appeared together at hustings.
And they are up against Zack Polanski who is running on an “eco-populist” platform promising what is crudely seen as out-Faraging Reform UK from the left. He is a skilled social media performer, and is also widely seen as the favourite - although, because the Greens are a small party (around 65,000 members), they are hard to poll, and no one knows for sure.
Zack Polanski. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The GuardianEllie Chowns with Adrian Ramsay. Photograph: Ellie & Adrian 2025/PA
Peter Walker
Labour has settled claims brought by 20 people, mainly former staffers, who featured in a leaked internal document about antisemitism in the party, with the costs estimated to be close to £2m.
The settlements include a payout to Labour’s former elections chief Patrick Heneghan, who was falsely accused in the dossier of having tried to sabotage Jeremy Corbyn’s chances of winning the 2017 general election.
It is understood the payouts will total just under £1m, but with Labour paying both sides’ legal fees the cost to the party will be near to £2m.
This puts the total legal costs for Labour connected to the dossier at more than £4m, with court documents released last year showing the party spent £2.4m on its own eventually abandoned lawsuit pursuing five separate staffers it accused of being behind the leak.
The 800-page document was produced under Corbyn’s leadership. It was billed as being part of a submission to the Equality and Human Rights Commission for the rights watchdog’s inquiry into antisemitism within Labour, but it was never submitted.
It was anonymously leaked and included hundreds of private WhatsApp messages from named staff detailing hostility towards Corbyn and his allies. The report said factional hostility contributed to an ineffective handling of antisemitism complaints, and set out claims of anti-black racism, Islamophobia, sexism and bullying.
A Labour spokesperson said: “The party welcomes the resolution of this matter.”
The SNP is playing an “old tune” on independence, Scottish Green leadership candidate Lorna Slater said.
SNP leader and First Minister John Swinney announced on Monday that a majority for his party at next year’s election should be enough to secure a second vote on independence, as it was for the first in 2014.
Slater – who was launching her campaign for re-election as party co-leader in Edinburgh – said she does not expect an SNP majority next May.
“This is an old tune that the SNP have been playing,” she told the PA news agency.
“There are several pro-independence parties in the Scottish Parliament – the Greens have been there all along, from the beginning.
“John Swinney, I think, is being a little disingenuous.
“We had a successful pro-independence majority with the Bute House Agreement that the SNP decided to end.”
In response, SNP MSP Keith Brown said: “Successive governments have shown that Westminster does not work for Scotland.
“It is clearer than ever that independence is the only change that will actually work for Scotland.
“The strategy set out by the First Minister puts independence at the heart of next year’s election campaign.”
The co-founder of Palestine Action can bring a legal challenge to the home secretary’s decision to ban the direct action group under anti-terrorism laws, a high court judge has ruled, writes Haroon Siddique and Rob Evans.
Lawyers for Huda Ammori argued at a hearing in London last week that the proscription of Palestine Action, which places it on a par with groups such as Islamic State and Boko Haram, was an “authoritarian and blatant abuse of power”.
They warned that it was already having a chilling effect on freedom of speech and protest, highlighting dozens of arrests of people for demonstrating since the ban came into force on 5 July, a number believed to have risen above 200.
The Home Office argued that a judicial review was not the correct avenue to challenge the ban, given that parliament had designated the POAC (Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission) precisely for that purpose.
Giving his ruling on Wednesday, Mr Justice Chamberlain said that he had heard evidence of “cases where individuals have been subjected to police action for expressing various kinds of support for the Palestinian cause”. The judge cited the case of Laura Murton, who the Guardian revealed had been threatened with arrest by armed officers for holding a sign saying “Free Gaza” and a Palestinian flag.
Resident doctors have squandered the “considerable goodwill” they had with Government after staging five days of strikes across England, the health secretary said.
Wes Streeting said he “never left” the negotiating table, and that he is willing to meet with the resident doctors committee of the British Medical Association (BMA) to resume talks in their ongoing dispute over pay and working conditions.
In a letter to BMA resident doctors committee co-chairs Dr Ross Nieuwoudt and Dr Melissa Ryan, Streeting said: “Thank you for your letter of 29 July inviting me to get back to the negotiation table, which is ironic because I never left.
“I am ready to continue the conversation from where you left it.
“As I made clear last week, the decision taken by your committee to proceed with strike action over the past five days was deeply disappointing and entirely unnecessary given the seemingly promising discussions we had to explore areas where we could make substantive improvements to doctors’ working lives.
“My letter to your committee, drafted following extensive engagement with you both, outlined a path to agreeing a package that could bring an end to this dispute.
“Had you and your committee not rushed to strike, we would be in the second of the 3 weeks I asked for to work intensively together to improve the working lives of your members.”
There has been acrimony for weeks between NHS bosses and the BMA, which has argued that resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – have seen their pay fall by a much greater amount in real terms since 2008-9 than the rest of the population.
Former Tory MP Adam Holloway says he is defecting to Reform UK because he thinks it is the party to 'rescue' Britain
Andrew Sparrow
Reform UK has announced that another former Tory MP, Adam Holloway, is joining the party.
Holloway, who was MP for Gravesham from 2005 until 2024, said he was joining Nigel Farage’s party because he thought it was best placed to rescue Britain.
A former soldier, Holloway said:
There comes a moment for many soldiers — and most politicians — when you realise the battle you think you’re fighting isn’t the one your leaders are waging. Many in Britain feel we may already have passed the point of no return. Our cities grow less cohesive, the country effectively bankrupt.
That moment came for me watching Kemi Badenoch tell Trevor Phillips there are real differences between Reform UK and the Conservatives. She was right. The difference is the Reform leadership and voters grasp the scale of our national peril and back a party serious about addressing it.
I joined the Army to serve the country, not the institution. The same applies now. If we want to rescue Britain, we must be honest about who’s still willing to fight for her.
Holloway joins a growing group of former Tory MPs who now support Reform, including Jake Berry, a former Tory chair, David Jones, a former Welsh secretary, and Andrea Jenkyns, who is now Reform’s mayor for Greater Lincolnshire.
Responding to the news, Farage said:
I’m delighted to welcome Adam Hollway to Reform UK. His bold move shows that we are the only serious option in Kent and is testament to the fantastic work our councillors are delivering across the region.
Nadeem Badshah is taking over the blog now for a bit. I will be back before 6pm, when I will be covering the Green party leadership hustings.
The SNP has said that the government should recognise a Palestinian statement immediately, instead of making that conditional upon Israel not meeting certain conditions.
In a statement, Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster, said:
Whilst it is obviously welcome that the UK Labour government are finally indicating that they are prepared to recognise Palestine – placing those conditions under the control of Israel is shocking and undermines the peaceful, equitable two state solution that we all wish to see.
Israel should receive no recognition or reward for stopping the starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza – they should be sanctioned for starving innocent children in the first place.
Keir Starmer’s plan has effectively placed the UK’s recognition of a Palestinian state in the hands of Benjamin Netanyahu – the head of an Israeli government that is inflicting a genocidal assault on Gaza.
Palestine Action co-founder wins permission to challenge ban
The co-founder of Palestine Action can bring a legal challenge to the home secretary’s decision to ban the direct action group under anti-terrorism laws, a high court judge has ruled. Haroon Siddique has the story.
Streeting invites BMA to resume talks with government next week to avert further strike by resident doctors
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has urged the BMA to resume talks with the government early next week in the hope of averting a further strike by resident doctors.
Their five-day strike in England ended at 7am this morning and, in an open letter to the co-chairs of the BMA resident doctors committee, says:
I was critical of my predecessors when they closed the door to the junior doctors committee. My door remains open to the hope that we can still build the partnership with resident doctors I aspired to when I came in a year ago and, in that spirit, I am happy to meet with you early next week.
He says he is replying to a letter inviting him back to the negotiating table, which is says “is ironic because I never left”.
In the letter, Streeting also restates his line that, while the government is not prepared to increase its pay offer, it is willing to offer other concessions that would benefit doctors.
I came into office hoping to reset the relationship between government and the resident doctor profession. Through this government’s actions working with the BMA, we have improved pay, conditions and career progression. I am serious about improving the working conditions of staff working in the NHS and restoring value after over a decade of neglect. I have been clear that while we cannot move on pay, this government is prepared to negotiate on areas related to your conditions at work, career progression and tangible measures which would put money in your members’ pockets.
According to a Telegraph report, Basem Naim, who served as minister for health in the Hamas administration running Gaza between 2007 and 2012, has welcomed the news that the UK is on course to recognise the Palestinian state. “International support for Palestinian self-determination shows we are moving in the right direction,” Naim is quoted as saying.
