The ‘eco-populist’ Green Party leader who wants to be the Farage of the Left

Published

2 months ago

September 2, 2025

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Zack Polanski, the new leader of the Green Party, has been studying one politician closely this summer – Nigel Farage.

The 42-year-old, who stormed his party’s leadership contest by a large margin, calls himself an “eco-populist” (he used to be involved in Extinction Rebellion), and thinks the Greens could learn a lot from the media-savvy tactics of Reform which have seen them surge ahead of Labour in the polls.

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Can the former actor and hypnotherapist, who rails against corporations and wants to tax the rich, take his party into the big leagues?

Speaking to him after his win was announced, Mr Polanski told me: “I despise Nigel Farage’s politics and I’d never copy what he does, but it’s undeniable that he cuts through; everyone knows who he is and that bold messaging – but for the truth, not the lies and misinformation he spins – that’s what you’ll hear more of from the Green Party.”

Mr Polanski is not an MP – he’s been on the London Assembly since 2021 and served as the party’s deputy leader. His two rivals in the leadership contest Adrian Ramsay, one of the party’s current leaders, and Ellie Chowns, were elected last year, but are not well-known to the public.

His more aggressive style and punchy social media clips appealed to party members impatient for results. His videos target “corporations who are destroying our democracy”; warn that “fascism is at our doorstep” and “call bullshit” – as he puts it – on the debate about asylum.

As one of the members at the event summed it up: “People don’t know what we stand for, we need to be loud and clear about what we’re for and what we’re against, and Zac will do that.”

He’s put some noses out of joint within the party, and the tabloid press has called him the “boob whisperer” after The Sun reported in 2013 that, while working as a hypnotherapist, he told a woman who wanted bigger breasts that she could do so with the power of her mind. Mr Polanski apologised and says he is focused on the future.

His ambitions are high for the fifth party in British politics – currently polling at around 10%.

“Thirty to forty MPs at the next election”, he says. Enough to deny Labour a majority if it’s close, or to be kingmakers. As politics fractures, he hopes they could have a big impact for the first time in decades.

The Green Party in the UK – unlike its counterparts in other European countries – has struggled electorally until very recently. It was formed in a pub in Coventry in 1972 by activists inspired by the US environmentalist Paul Ehrlich, who warned that the world was overpopulated, spelling disaster for nature.

Its biggest success was in the 1989 European elections, gaining 15% of the vote, but representation in parliament was not achieved until 2010 when Caroline Lucas took Brighton Pavilion from Labour. She became an influential campaigner on the climate, fracking and animal rights, also warning against economic growth at any cost.

After she stood down, the party struggled to find its voice, with Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party pursuing a radical left-wing agenda. Now, after winning four MPs last year, Mr Polanski believes that with Labour in government and Reform at its coat tails, their moment has come.

He told members: “We can, and we will lower your bills. We will nationalise the water companies. We will hold this Labour government to account.

“Because when we look at Keir Starmer and what this government have been doing; whether it’s the two-child benefit cap, the disability cuts, the genocide in Gaza, my message to Labour is very clear: we are not here to be disappointed by you. We are not here to be concerned by you. We’re here to replace you.”

Mr Polanski is unashamedly pro-migration and trans rights. He’s also suggested Britain should leave NATO. He’d consider working with the incipient party being set up by Mr Corbyn and former Labour MP Zarah Sultana, with the support of some of the pro-Gaza independents.

All of that may not endear him to all the Green Party’s potential supporters. The party now has 860 councillors, but some are in rural areas where they’ve won seats from the Tories.

There is a political opportunity on the left. Mr Polanski says he knows what will get his party into the spotlight. But it’s a far bigger task to deliver seats in parliament – including one he’ll need for himself.

Politics

Starmer avoided political heat at home during Brazil climate conference – but he returns to a prisons crisis

Published

3 hours ago

November 9, 2025

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Starmer avoided political heat at home during Brazil climate conference - but he returns to a prisons crisis

Sir Keir Starmer’s been on the other side of the world for most of the week – at the COP30 climate summit in Brazil, his 40th foreign trip in 16 months.

Back home, his government’s credibility has continued its painful unravelling.

Five days on from David Lammy’s disastrous stand-in performance at PMQS, the justice secretary’s ministerial colleagues are still struggling to explain why he repeatedly failed to answer questions on whether another migrant criminal had been released from prison by mistake.

Yes, Conservative MP James Cartlidge got the question wrong, as Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was an illegal migrant, not an asylum seeker.

But Mr Cartlidge argued that because the deputy prime minister failed to divulge the information he did have, he failed to act with full transparency and should be investigated by the PM’s ethics advisor for a possible breach of the ministerial code.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has been defending Mr Lammy’s response.

She told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips she doesn’t accept that he was being evasive, insisting Mr Lammy had been carefully weighing his words to ensure that “when we do speak about matters of such significance to the public… we do so with care and make sure the full facts are presented”.

At that time, rather extraordinarily, we’re told the justice secretary did not have the full facts of the case, even though the Metropolitan Police had been informed the day before (six days after Kaddour-Cherif was accidentally freed).

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The combination of wrongly-freed prisoners and illegal migrants is a conjunction of two of the most toxic issues in British politics – the overflowing prison system and the dysfunctional asylum system.

Both are vast, chaotic problems the government is struggling to get a grip on, as the Conservatives also found, to their cost.

But ministers’ ongoing failure to bring both issues under control has only been highlighted by Mr Lammy’s sloppy handling of the situation.

Football regulator donations row

Ms Nandy has herself been at the heart of another government controversy this week – over the appointment of the new football regulator, David Kogan.

An independent investigation found she “unknowingly” breached the code on public appointments by failing to declare that Mr Kogan had previously donated £2,900 to her Labour leadership campaign – and also criticised her department for not highlighting his status as a Labour donor who had previously given £33,410 to the party.

The culture secretary has apologised and explained she had been unaware of the donations.

She also pointed out that Mr Kogan was a candidate originally put forward by the Conservatives. But again, it’s messy.

It’s yet another story which chips away at the government’s promises to clear up politics and act with full transparency and accountability.

Budget blues?

The ultimate breach of trust looks set to come with the budget on 26 November, however.

In an extraordinary early morning speech this week, Chancellor Rachel Reeves signalled that she’s likely to raise taxes in two and a half weeks – and thus breach the core promise of the Labour Party manifesto.

The rationale for her dire warnings on Tuesday was to start explaining why she will probably have to do so – getting in her excuses early about the languishing state of the economy as a result of Brexit, Donald Trump’s tariffs and her inheritance from the Conservatives.

The Tories claim Ms Reeves could sort out the finances by cutting welfare spending – something ministers dramatically failed to do when their efforts at reform were scuttled by angry backbenchers.

Governments breach their manifesto commitments all the time.

But if the chancellor goes ahead and puts up income tax, as expected (even if that’s offset, for some, by a corresponding cut to national insurance), it will be a shock – and the first such increase in 50 years.

The new deputy leader of the party, Lucy Powell, pointedly warned the government this week about the risks of breaching trust in politics by breaking manifesto promises.

Lisa Nandy didn’t shoot her comments down when Sir Trevor asked for her response, arguing instead that while “we take our promises very, very seriously”, they [Labour] “were also elected on a promise to change this country”, with a particular focus on fixing the NHS.

The impossibility of doing both – protecting taxes while also increasing government spending in such a challenging economic climate – highlights the folly of making such restrictive promises.

But voters are not in a forgiving mood.

Politics

Trump announces $2,000 tariff ‘dividend,’ here is how it will affect crypto

Published

7 hours ago

November 9, 2025

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Trump announces ,000 tariff 'dividend,' here is how it will affect crypto

United States President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that most Americans will receive a $2,000 “dividend” from the tariff revenue and criticized the opposition to his sweeping tariff policies.

“A dividend of at least $2000 a person, not including high-income people, will be paid to everyone,” Trump said on Truth Social.

The US Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments about the legality of the tariffs, with the overwhelming majority of prediction market traders betting against a court approval.

US Government, United States, Donald Trump — *Source:* *Donald Trump*

Kalshi traders place the odds of the Supreme Court approving the policy at just 23%, while Polymarket traders have the odds at 21%. Trump asked:

“The president of the United States is allowed, and fully approved by Congress, to stop all trade with a foreign country, which is far more onerous than a tariff, and license a foreign country, but is not allowed to put a simple tariff on a foreign country, even for purposes of national security?”

Investors and market analysts celebrated the announcement as economic stimulus that will boost cryptocurrency and other asset prices as portions of the stimulus flow into the markets, but also warned of the long-term negative effects of the proposed dividend.

The proposed economic stimulus will boost asset markets, but at a steep cost

Investment analysts at The Kobeissi Letter forecast that about 85% of US adults should receive the $2,000 stimulus checks, based on distribution data from the economic stimulus checks during the COVID era.

While a portion of the stimulus will flow into markets and raise asset prices, Kobeissi Letter warned that the ultimate long-term effect of any economic stimulus will be fiat currency inflation and the loss of purchasing power.

“If you don’t put the $2,000 in assets, it is going to be inflated away or just service some interest on debt and sent to banks,” Bitcoin analyst, author, and advocate Simon Dixon said.

“Stocks and Bitcoin only know to go higher in response to stimulus,” investor and market analyst Anthony Pompliano said in response to Trump’s announcement.

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