Zack Polanski accuses Shahrar Ali of ‘siding with Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’ on trans rights
The Green Party of England and Wales’ deputy leadership election is now in full swing, with a number of hustings taking place over the past week. On Tuesday, over 150 members attended a centrally organised hustings to put their questions to the four candidates in the running.
The event was fairly standard fare for the first 30 or so minutes, with long opening statements and responses to questions which rehashed each of the candidates’ core platforms. But it then quickly descended into a bitter back and forth between two of the candidates – Zack Polanski and Shahrar Ali. The two candidates clashed extensively over trans rights.
This came to a head when Polanski criticised Ali’s position on trans rights – a stance which has formed a key plank of Ali’s campaign. Polanski accused Ali of “sitting with Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin” on the issue. He said,
And finally, just to answer Shahrar about talking to people we disagree with. I’d just say on this trans rights issue, I’m sitting with Caroline Lucas, Sian Berry, Amelia Womack. He’s sitting with Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. I think it’s about time to think: who are we siding with here?
Naturally, this didn’t go down well with Ali, who hit back. He said,
Am I supposed to find that insulting Zack that you’ll compare me to Trump and Putin? You know, it is a little bit low, isn’t it? As somebody, myself, who has been very outspoken against the horrific crimes of Putin and the double standards and anti-democratic nature of Trump, I do think that’s a bit low.
Ali then went on to criticise Polanski for his past involvement in the Liberal Democrats. He said, “I was campaigning for and getting Greens elected while you were having hot dinners as a Lib Dem candidate in 2018, so I’m not going to take lectures from you Zack.”
Ali was correct to state that Polanski was previously a member of the Liberal Democrats, and stood as a candidate for the party. However, Polanski left the Lib Dems and joined the Greens in 2017.
Following on from this, Ali went on to criticise Polanski further, alluding to his involvement with an article in The Sun in which Polanski implied he could use hypnosis to teach women to make their breasts bigger. Polanski has since apologised for this article.
Ali said, “I do think it’s a liability for somebody to have been attempting to get a woman to change their body because they feel insecure about it. That’s not a very feministic angle.”
Later in the debate, Polanski would return to the issue of Ali’s views on trans rights. He told the audience, “I didn’t compare Shahrar Ali to Vladimir Putin – he shouldn’t flatter himself. I said that his views were similar to the views that were being put out by [them].”
Ali has faced extensive criticism for his comments on trans rights. In 2021, his appointment as a spokesperson is widely believed to have been behind Sian Berry’s decision not to re-stand for the party leadership after her co-leader Jonathan Bartley resigned. He was later removed from the role “for breaches of the Speakers’ Code of Conduct”, understood to relate to comments he had made regarding trans rights.
PS. We hope you enjoyed this article. Bright Green has got big plans for the future to publish many more articles like this. You can help make that happen. Please donate to Bright Green now.
What is the Green Party about? As a member, I would like to see the MAIN issues addressed, namely
Climate Change and biodiversity. Now is the time to really push these issues forward, whilst people’s minds are focussed on the enormous heat-wave. The Green Party should be able to tolerate differing opinions on other issues in order to gain maximum support for the main issues. If these are not addressed, the future is a world which is uninhabitable. Let us have a party which is a “broad church,” agreeing to disagree on some issues and united towards the common goals.
Sure, if you wish to alienate trans people who would otherwise support the party, that sounds like a great move.
Zack is 100% right, it is disgraceful that Shahrar is still a member, he should have been thrown out long ago
Shahrar doesn’t speak for many women, including me, and it’s not feminist to have men speaking for us. In fact it’s patronising and extremely irritating. Many women are trans allies and don’t agree with him, so I wish he would stop saying he’s speaking for women.
It’s very low that he drags out an article from The Sun, of all newspapers, but so typical. Of course The Sun turns all stories into something smutty or sensational. People go to hypnotherapists for many issues, including low self-esteem over their bodies. It’s completely irrelevant to the hustings and deputy leadership election, and quite ironic and hypocritical when Ali complains if anybody draws attention to media coverage of him in the past. He called that a smear when an old video emerged where his comments were more politically relevant than Zack’s old job.
He clearly sees Zack as the one to beat and has been doing plenty of digging.
no your wrong it is Zack Polonski who is not fit for office in the green party. the facts in the article have not been disputed. so it just that it in the sun that the problem for you. many of the people who vote for you will read the sun. I can tell you that telling them they should only be reading red peper, peace news and resurgence will not win them over…
Zack is right
Shahrar’s rhetoric regards Trans people (and more generally LGBTIQA+ folk) is consistently similar to that of Putin & Trump
He has in the past campaigned to stop Trans people accessing Gender Affirming Healthcare and support, an opposed motions that aim to protect and support LGBTIQA+ people
His socially conservative beliefs are out of tune with the social justice focus of most GPEW members
Zack represents a much stronger option as Deputy Leader in as much that he has a proven history of being elected to the largest devolved government in the UK, and works tirelessly for those he represents
In contrast Shahrar does very little to benefit the party, and neither has he shown much desire to do the hard work involved in being a deputy leader
Thanks for saying this. I agree with you 100%.
Interesting that Zack Polanski did not try to rebut Shahrar Ali’s views on the trans issue but to link him to disgusting people. People have views on hundreds of topics. We all will find that there are some things where our opinion just happens to be the same as someone’s who we despise. Black mark for Zack for playing it dirty.
…and then had the gall to accuse Shahrar of ‘going low’ after he reminded us of Zack’s quite recent membership of the Lib Dems!
Shahrar Ali is not, as this article repeatedly implies, anti-trans. He supports the rights of trans people just as he supports the rights of all human beings.
Where he parts company with Zack Polanski is in his defence of the rights of women – rights they have fought and died for over the last 100 years.
The threat does not come from the trans community, but from followers of gender ideology, whose misogynistic and homophobic ideas, together with violent and authoritarian behaviour threaten women, LGB AND Trans people alike. And worst of all, vulnerable children.
Public awareness of the true nature of the gender ideology movement is rapidly advancing. The future well-being and success of the Green Party rests on members like Shahrar Ali to help it disassociate from this dangerous and anti-Green influence before it’s too late.
Peter, Shahrar literally wants to roll back the existing rights of trans people. It is categorically untrue to assert that he ‘supports the rights of trans people’.