Zack Polanski speaking at Green Party conference

The current deputy leader of the Green Party of England and Wales Zack Polanski has announced he is standing to be party’s next leader. He’s the first candidate to announce he’s in the running in the leadership election set to take place this summer.

Launching is campaign in the Guardian, Polanski said that the Green Party isn’t ‘being as bold as we can be’ to fill the ‘vacuum’ left by the disappointment the public feels with both the Labour government and the Tories.

He said: “People are done with the two old parties and we’re in this dangerous moment where Nigel Farage is absolutely ready to fill that vacuum,” adding: “There’s an empty space in politics, where we’re not being as bold as we can be.”

Although he wasn’t explicit in criticising the approach of the party’s current co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, his comments to the Guardian indicate a clear contrast he wants to draw between what he would offer and what they have during their leadership, saying: “Being sensible and professional are good qualities. But I don’t think they should be the central qualities.”

He later added: “We’re not visible enough. I don’t want to see our membership grow incrementally. I want to see us be a mass movement. There’s something here around eco-populism: still being absolutely based in evidence, science and data – and never losing that – but telling a really powerful story.”

Alongside his Guardian launch, Polanski has launched a campaign website alongside a video setting out his vision for the party.

In a clear pitch to the left of the party’s membership, Polanski said he wanted to build ‘a party that knows that inequality is at the heart of all of our problems’, and ‘a party that will confront fascism and call a genocide exactly what it is’.

He also said that he would be working to increase the number of Greens elected in local councils and in the House of Commons.

The Green Party’s next leadership election is set to take place this summer, the first time in four years after the previous election was postponed so as not to coincide with a general election. Every Green Party member will be able to vote to elect both the party’s new leaders and deputy leaders.

Under the party’s rulebook, there can either be a single leader or two co-leaders. If  a single leader is elected, there will be two deputy leaders elected too. If two co-leaders are elected, then there will instead be a single deputy leader.

In 2021, Denyer and Ramsay won the leadership of the party on a ticket of professionalising the party, significantly increasing the number of Green Councillors elected and getting more Green MPs into parliament. While they have been successful in these aims, there has been some disquiet among the party’s membership that the pair have failed to cut through to the public in the way that Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has done since the Labour government was elected.

Neither Denyer or Ramsay have yet confirmed whether they intend to stand for re-election to the party’s top job.

Since becoming the Green Party’s deputy leader in 2022, Polanski has significantly increased his profile both within and outside the party. This has come through an effective social media presence, strong media performances and his role as a member of the London Assembly.

With Polanski confirming his intention to stand for the party leadership, what is now unclear is who will be filling his shoes in the deputy leadership, a role which will be elected simultaneously.