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Since Zack Polanski was elected as leader of the Green Party of England and Wales in September, the party has seen a more than 50% increase in membership – from 65,000 members to over 100,000. This increase has been driven partially by disillusionment with Labour among left-wing voters, but also by Polanski’s ‘eco-populist’ and firm socialist policies that “really resonate” with voters.

The Green Party has occupied, in recent years, a fringe position in UK politics. Winning only 4 seats in the 2024 General Election, it was nowhere near the force it has become, little more than a year onward. It has also been seen as the party of the green-thumbed, white middle class, and not many others. Mothin Ali, elected Deputy Leader alongside Rachel Millward, believes that this is still the case, though it is rapidly changing.

Ali said in the same interview with Left Foot Forward that he’d like to see more councillors from Global Majority backgrounds, and that to accomplish this, the Green Party would have to deepen its connection with local communities, and powerful voices in those communities. In other words, to truly become the diverse party of all working-class people, the party needs to deepen its grassroots approach.

Under Polanski, the party has already begun to do so, and this can be seen most prominently in its recent Autumn Conference, where members voted to proscribe the Israeli Defence Forces as a terrorist group and to effectively abolish private landlords.

These are not the policies of a middle-class, liberal party seeking to uphold the status quo, but of one now becoming deeply focused on and steered by the popular concerns of the working class. 

The influx of younger, socially and financially left-wing voters and members can be attributed to a few key factors: Labour’s failures in office, Polanski’s powerful campaign, and the unfortunate, public, schism in the Corbyn-and-Sultana-led Your Party.

When Your Party was first announced, many would-be supporters had concerns that the two parties would split the left-wing voter base, opening a wide avenue for Reform UK to take the majority at the next General Election, just as Reform and the Conservatives split the right and paved the way for Labour’s landslide in 2024. However, Your Party was fraught with internal conflict from the start. Sultana has accused her co-members of “sexist” behaviour, calling the party a “boys’ club.” Meanwhile, trust between Sultana and the four MPs of the ‘Independent Alliance’ reportedly broke down after she publicly announced her and Corbyn’s leadership of a new party despite an alleged agreement of secrecy. 

For potential voters, however, this all came to a head when Sultana’s faction of the as-yet not properly named party took unilateral action to launch the membership sign-up, allegedly without the sign-off of Corbyn or the rest of the party. The fallout was very public, and left many “disillusioned” with the entire party. 

If a new party could not even agree on a membership launch, and a so-called left-wing, socialist alternative is being accused of running as a boys’ club – a claim which has not since been withdrawn by Sultana – many potential members will be hesitant to join. Nor is this the only rift between the party’s founding members. 

Many concerns were raised to Corbyn and Sultana about the comments of Blackburn MP Adnan Hussain made a comment online appearing to agree with the anti-trans rhetoric of “gender ideology”. While Sultana has since taken to social media to affirm her own support for trans individuals, and that stated trans rights are a “key part” of Your Party’s policies, and Corbyn has in the recent past expressed support for the trans community, neither have directly, publicly addressed Hussain’s comments.

It’s division like this that has made the Green Party so attractive in recent months. When, out of the two parties seen as the left alternative, one’s founding members cannot agree on policies, Polanski’s powerful, unwavering support for trans people is all the more attractive to voters. When faced with Piers Morgan, a well-known belligerent right-wing debater, belittling and mocking both trans women and Polanski himself for his support of them, the Green leader fiercely championed both the dignity and rights of the trans community.

While the Green Party has had its own rifts regarding support for trans rights, namely the disaffiliation of the Green Party Women group over their “gender-critical” beliefs that ran contrary to the Green’s official position that supports self-determination, decisive action was taken. Today, the party’s stance is clear. Unfortunately, the same cannot yet be said of Your Party, which is why some have lost trust, instead turning to the Greens.

In light of Your Party’s setbacks – though Sultana and Corbyn have seemingly reconciled and regret the “fiasco” – it seems to some that the next general election may come down to a fight between the Green Party and Reform UK. Polanski himself certainly thinks so. Since the start, he has been directly challenging Nigel Farage, disputing the right-wing populist demagogue’s small boat scaremongering, and using Farage’s own strategy against him in the form of “eco-populism”.

Eco-populism, at its core, is an approach to politics that centres the environment, but by focusing on the concerns and wants of ordinary people, a new take on the Green Party’s environmentalism that has failed for so long to attract the working class: something Labour never truly achieved and has now all but abandoned. Zack Polanski and an eco-populist Green Party, however, may just manage it.