Menu
Polanski defeated in Holborn & St Pancras: Are the Greens finished?

Polanski defeated in Holborn & St Pancras: Are the Greens finished?

, ,

Labour's victory in the Holborn & St Pancras by-election represents a huge blow to the Green Party, and its left-wing leader Zack Polanski. The party now stands at a crossroads, with a right-wing faction openly conspiring to oust Polanski. What comes next?

The Holborn & St Pancras by-election presented a golden opportunity for Green Party leader Zack Polanski to give Labour a good – and well deserved – kicking. Unfortunately, despite the enormous ground campaign, this opportunity was squandered.

This is a setback for the Greens, and they now stand at a crossroads. Many will now be left asking: can they come back from this defeat?

The breakdown

The Greens tripled their vote since the 2024 election, to 8,928 votes – losing to Labour’s 12,292. On the surface this appears to be a big victory. But a closer look at the numbers paints a different picture.

In the election itself, Labour’s vote count decreased by over 6,000 compared to 2024 – yet this did not necessarily translate into more votes for the Greens.

Polanski was only able to win 1,000 more votes than Andrew Feinstein did in the 2024 general election – an independent pro-Palestine candidate who ran against the incumbent MP, Keir Starmer.

Actually, if you add up the votes for both Feinstein and the Greens from the 2024 election, it comes to approximately 11,000 – which is 2,000+ more votes than Polanski got in this election. In other words, the left-of-Labour vote went down from 2024 to 2026.

Clearly, Polanski was unable to win over large numbers of Labour swing voters. But, crucially, he wasn’t able to mobilise any new voters to vote Green, either. You could argue that his party in effect lost 2,000 votes compared to the previous general election.

The Holborn & St Pancras by-election was billed as a hugely significant political contest – acting as a litmus test for Burnham’s ‘revamped’ Labour Party, as well as for Polanski’s ‘eco-populist’ Greens.

The election was consistently a top news item, and the Greens poured everything into what was an enormous, high-profile ground campaign.

And yet, despite all of this, this was the lowest turnout for any election in this parliamentary cycle: only 39 percent of the electorate turned out, which is down over 15 percent from 2024.

In fact, Count Binface, a joke candidate, received more votes than Polanski in his showdown with Reform’s Nigel Farage in Clacton-on-Sea earlier this year. The Clacton by-election – in which none of the mainstream parties participated, except from Reform – also had a 5 percent higher turnout than Holborn & St Pancras did.

But none of this was a foregone conclusion.

Could the Greens have won?

As we have detailed in previous articles, the surge in support for Polanski’s Green Party is an expression of the growing political polarisation in British society, as people search beyond the establishment parties for solutions to the problems produced by capitalism.

The party in power for the last two years has been the Labour Party, the traditional ‘left’ party in the UK. They are rightfully hated by many, because they are held responsible for the miserable situation facing workers and youth today.

The Greens have therefore enjoyed their highest levels of popularity and enthusiasm when they clearly and sharply distinguished themselves from Labour’s government of austerity and war – for example, by proposing to ‘abolish landlords’, by calling out the genocide in Gaza, and by pledging to replace Labour as the main party on the left of British politics.

They were able to channel a portion of the burning, anti-establishment anger in British society. They began to look like a viable electoral alternative to the left of Labour, and one that could seriously challenge Reform, as well. The highpoint of the Greens’ success this year was undoubtedly Hannah Spencer’s victory in the Gorton & Denton by-election in February.

But since Burnham took office, instead of driving home this advantage, the Green leadership has taken its foot off the pedal: softening its more radical rhetoric; and, fatally, sowing illusions in the idea that the Greens could have a more friendly approach to Burnham’s Labour. This was the backdrop to Polanski running in the Holborn & St Pancras by-election.

Can Polanski and the Greens win in Holborn & St Pancras?

As we wrote in the run-up to the contest, in ‘Can Polanski and the Greens win in Holborn & St Pancras’:

“If the Green leader wants to win, he will need to come out fighting, on a much bolder programme: one that attacks the billionaires, landlords, and warmongers – and which thereby puts a clear political distance between the Greens and Burnham’s Labour… Such a programme could electrify workers and youth, in this constituency and nationally, and turn things around for the Greens.”

But this was not the strategy pursued by the Greens during their election campaign.

‘Vote Green and watch Labour move’

At the Green Party conference at the beginning of October, Polanski’s tagline for the entire event was: “Vote Green and watch Labour move” (our emphasis throughout).

Polanski claimed that “through our sustained pressure – and our historic wins – we have held the worst instincts of the Labour government in check…. And we have started to move them in the right direction. But we can’t wait for them to get there on their own”.

One of the Greens’ campaign leaflets asked the public to vote for Polanski for “a strong voice… to keep Labour in check”.

Rather than aiming to mobilise angry workers and youth looking for radical solutions to their problems – a chunk of the electorate that would probably otherwise abstain – the main thrust of Polanski’s campaign was focused around trying to convince existing Labour voters, by presenting a more moderate image and programme.

Polanski effectively posed the Green Party as nothing more than a soft-left pressure group for an otherwise agreeable Labour government.

With this approach, Polanski likely alienated his mainstay of support among the radical youth and workers who are turned off from Labour. And what was the result? As the numbers demonstrate, the Green leader was unable to win over Labour voters.

Polls revealed that the percentage of Labour voters defecting to the Greens dropped drastically – from 12 percent back in April, to only 5 percent in the run-up to the Holborn & St Pancras election.

So clearly, this Labour-friendly approach is a lose-lose strategy, by all accounts.

Polanski could draw the correct lesson, which is that people are looking for a bold left-wing alternative to Labour. He could use this as an opportunity to continue transforming the Green Party along more radical lines.

But Polanski will likely draw the complete opposite lesson: that he lost the election because he was too radical; that voters were put off by the media smears over the recently-passed ‘Zionism is Racism’ policy; and that he must now make the Greens more palatable to middle-class public opinion.

Capitulation to establishment pressure

Obviously, the right-wing ‘Tories on bikes’ faction within the Greens are pushing this idea very strongly. They are saying that the Greens will lose elections if they continue to pursue bold, anti-imperialist and class-based policies.

As we have commented before, this is total rubbish: such radical slogans and demands are precisely what made the Greens a pole of attraction in the first place, following Polanski’s victory late last year.

The Green Party’s liberal old guard are effectively joining in with the establishment’s hysterical smear campaign, with the aim of ousting Polanski from the leadership, and preventing the tens of thousands of new, grassroots members from influencing the party. They want nothing less than to transform the Green Party back into a defanged, establishment-friendly, liberal environmentalist party.

The conservative wing of the party – around the likes of former-leader Caroline Lucas, and MPs like Adrian Ramsey – are likely conspiring behind the scenes to oust Polanski.

In the case of Lucas, this conspiracy is out in the open: when asked on BBC Newsnight whether Polanski should resign if he loses, Lucas ominously said, “let’s just see what happens in the coming days and weeks”. For a high-profile Green member to say this on TV, on the eve of a bellwether by-election, is nothing short of wrecking behaviour.

In a similar vein, the head of the Jewish Greens group, Vivien Lichtenstein, has threatened to leave the party, calling for Polanski to resign.

Other high-up Greens are using this opportunity to justify the clamping down of internal democracy. In a comical turn of phrase, the leader of the Greens’ parliamentary group, Ellie Chowns MP, has said that “the party must not become vulnerable to capture by extremists and racists.” Chowns is no doubt euphemistically referring to the thousands of Green members who oppose Zionism and imperialism.

Instead of using these blatant provocations as an opportunity to mobilise his youthful, grassroots base, and wage a struggle against these agents of the capitalist establishment, Polanski has instead capitulated on the question of internal party democracy.

In a Guardian article reflecting on “a tough week for the Greens”, Polanski wrote:

“My responsibility now is to bring our party together to achieve our full potential. This starts with an assurance from me: under my leadership, I will not tolerate antisemitism’

“Second, our party has grown to a size none of us could have anticipated when I became leader. Our party democracy must now evolve to meet that – creating wider engagement for members, giving leaders more responsibility to set the party’s strategic direction, and making our processes as robust and accessible as possible.”

By giving into this pressure on party democracy, and giving any credence to these false accusations of antisemitism, Polanski is placing himself on a very dangerous path – a path which ends with lining up on the side of right wingers and Zionists, in order to clamp down on his own left-wing supporters.

It was precisely this timid, vacillating approach that destroyed the Corbyn movement within the Labour Party in the 2010s.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was at his strongest when he put forward bold socialist policies, and galvanised his support base to fight back against the establishment smears.

He was at his weakest, however, when he compromised with the right wing – the agents of the capitalist class stabbing him in his back (and his front). Every time he cowered, moderated his programme, and apologised for non-existent antisemitism, it undermined the morale of his supporters.

This struggle was drawn out over a four-year period, after which Corbyn resigned – demoralising, disorientating, and de-mobilising the mass movement behind him, and smashing the Labour Party as a viable vehicle for working-class struggle.

In an effort to appease the establishment and right-wing Greens, Polanski is repeating many of the same mistakes as Corbyn – compressed into the space of a single year. This could potentially destroy the Greens as a viable left-wing party capable of seriously challenging Labour.

Where are the Greens going?

As we predicted, this year’s Green Party conference brought the subterranean splits within the party out into the open – particularly over the question of Palestine.

It’s not completely clear cut, but the divide in the party over the ZiR motion represents an unbridgeable gulf between the conservative old guard on the one hand, and the new, youthful and more radical grassroots membership on the other.

The sharpening of these splits – and the drawing of battlelines – will have major implications for the future of the Green Party, as different factions vie for the future direction of the party. The cat is out of the bag now, and there is no going back.

Green Party’s ‘Zionism is racism’ policy ignites McCarthyite hysteria

As the conflicts between the different factions sharpen, Polanski and his allies will come under more pressure to decisively pick a side: the right-wing MPs and leading figures; or the grassroots membership.

If Polanski follows through with his promise to ‘overhaul’ party democracy, he will – objectively – be placing himself on the side of the right-wing faction, who fear open debate like the plague. But, at the same time, if he wants to stay relevant and remain as leader, he will have to keep his left-wing supporters onside.

If Polanski cannot continue transforming the Greens to the liking of the membership who voted for him, they may even look towards another figure who can.

At the moment, Mothin Ali – the only Green leader who voted for the ZiR motion – could in the near future be forced to come out against the more moderate leaders. Ali has denied the rumours that he is considering a leadership challenge, but that doesn’t mean it’s ruled out in the long-run.

Polanski looks out of his depth. He will be pushed from pillar to post as he tries to keep everyone onside. It is very likely that, in a bid to please everybody, he pleases nobody.

Less ‘vibes’, more revolution

Caught between all of these contradictions – and lacking a clear, class perspective on the struggles opening up within his own party – Polanski will likely continue down the path of compromise, vacillation, and buckling to establishment pressure.

To make up for his lack of a real political programme and strategy, he will continue with catchy sound bites and feel-good ‘vibes’. But vibes can only get you so far. The deep crisis of capitalism requires real answers – people want solutions now.

In an empty attempt to claim victory from this election defeat, Polanski has claimed that Labour’s leftward shift in tone under Burnham is a victory for the Greens. He is essentially telling people to thank the Greens for putting these two-faced, genocide-backing austerity enablers in charge. This is hardly going to impress the millions of workers and young people who detest the Labour Party, no matter who’s leading it.

Burnham’s Labour will very soon show its true colours, by carrying out a programme of austerity and militarism, and becoming universally hated as a result.

It’s not impossible that – despite all the backpedalling, flip-flopping, and infighting – the Greens could see a further uptick in support, as people desperately search for a fresh, untested left-wing alternative to Labour’s government of crisis.

But, if Polanski continues on this road of softening his programme – and failing to differentiate himself from Labour – this prospect will become less and less likely.

The ‘Gen-Z revolution’ has hit Europe, and it won’t be long before it reaches Britain’s shores. If Polanski continues the way he is going, the Greens may soon be superseded and swept aside, as events render them irrelevant.

Big battles lie ahead. The working class – and above all the youth – needs real leadership that isn’t scared of taking on the establishment, and isn’t afraid to wage a pitched struggle against our class enemies.

This is why we are building the Revolutionary Communist Party. We appeal to all of those who can see beyond the limits of the Greens’ tepid reformism: join us in the task of building a revolutionary leadership, join the RCP today.

Related Posts