In the bustling world of British politics, the Green Party is no stranger to passionate debate and moments of reckoning. The past week has seen a surge of attention on Zack Polanski, the London Assembly Member and front runner in the race to become the Green Party’s next leader. His name has ricocheted through political circles, not just for his policy proposals but for his ability to connect, challenge, and inspire—a quality that, according to many, might just be what the party needs to seize its moment.
Polanski’s most recent high-profile appearance came on August 18, 2025, when he took to the airwaves on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. The topic? A wealth tax—specifically, whether the UK’s richest should shoulder more of the nation’s burden to address deepening poverty. Facing off against Australian multimillionaire and former Dragon’s Den star Richard Farleigh, Polanski didn’t mince words. As Farleigh pushed back with familiar arguments about millionaires fleeing the country, Polanski calmly countered with examples from abroad. “Norway and Spain have shown that wealth taxes can work,” he explained, proposing a 1% tax on assets over £10 million as a means to tackle the UK’s stark inequalities (as reported by The Tab).
When Farleigh accused Polanski of painting him as someone who only cared about billionaires, Polanski shot back: “You’ve come on here as a very wealthy individual and dared to say on TV ‘I don’t want to pay a bit more tax’ when this country is crumbling.” He didn’t stop there, highlighting the pressing reality: “We have four million children living in child poverty and you’re saying ‘I don’t even want to pay a bit more’ is morally reprehensible.” The exchange quickly went viral, with viewers praising Polanski’s clarity and moral conviction. One supporter summed up the mood: “People are angry & want politicians who’ll articulate that anger. People also understand politics isn’t a zero sum game & want politicians who’ll fight for them. Despite all the personal insults from the multimillionaire pitched against him, @ZackPolanski did this on #GMB.”
But Polanski’s rise isn’t just about a single debate or a viral moment. His journey with the Green Party has been shaped by years of hard-won lessons in grassroots campaigning and a keen sense of timing. Jonathan Essex, Green leader of the opposition on Reigate and Banstead Borough Council, recently reflected on the party’s evolution and why he believes Polanski is the right person to lead at this pivotal juncture. “In 2010 I stood in two elections on the same day,” Essex recalled in Bright Green. “One was carefully targeted and delivered Surrey’s first Green councillor by 800 votes. The other, a long-shot attempt to be elected as the first Green MP in Surrey, in the concurrent General Election (I came last!). That contrast taught me something important: targeted campaigns work, and they take real discipline.”
For years, Essex and his colleagues found themselves winning re-elections in their original ward but struggling to break through elsewhere. It wasn’t until 2018, after years of building up people and structure, that they managed to target and win a second ward. The real turning point, however, came in 2019. During that year’s all-out elections, the local Green Party doubled its councillors from three to six, winning twice as many votes as the Conservatives in their target areas. Even more telling, the Greens came second in nearly every other ward, sometimes losing by just a handful of votes—often with “paper candidates” who had barely campaigned.
What changed? According to Essex, it was the political weather. In April 2019, Extinction Rebellion staged its largest protests yet, occupying central London over the Easter weekend. The ripple effect was immediate: just days later, Parliament declared a climate emergency. “That surge in climate awareness helped make the Green vote suddenly more viable, in a way we hadn’t seen since the 1989 European elections,” Essex wrote. Extinction Rebellion’s impact was different from traditional lobbying—it openly challenged the political system itself, giving local Greens the momentum to achieve unprecedented success.
Essex sees this blend of activism and electoral strategy as central to the Green Party’s future—and to the choice of its next leader. “When movements shake the system, Greens can turn that energy into real wins—but only with leaders who connect activism to electoral strategy.” He believes Polanski is uniquely positioned to do just that, describing him as someone who can “paint the big picture—linking the Green Party’s mission to broader social movements and deep green campaigns, amplifying their demands, and making politics feel relevant to people who’ve lost faith in it.”
None of this, Essex insists, is a substitute for the diligent, detailed work of MPs and councillors. Rather, it’s the essential complement. The Green Party’s mission, he argues, isn’t just about incremental change—it’s about challenging the very systems that perpetuate inequality and environmental crisis. “Our political and economic system is the root barrier to tackling climate change and inequality. Too often, even progressive parties shy away from challenging it directly. Some Greens abroad have hesitated to use the phrase ‘system change’ for fear of misunderstanding. But avoiding the term won’t make the need any less urgent.”
For Essex and many others, the scale of the crises facing Britain—rising wealth inequality, climate breakdown, and social fragmentation—demands leadership that is both radical and pragmatic. It means building alliances with trade unions, campaign groups, and communities, and being ready for scenarios ranging from Green participation in government to the need for a complete overhaul of the electoral system. “A voting system that rewards parties committed to endless growth will keep forcing voters into bad choices, and leave space for manipulation by vested interests.”
Polanski’s supporters argue that he embodies the kind of leadership required in this moment: hopeful in the face of cynicism, compassionate yet uncompromising, and able to mobilize those who’ve given up on politics. Essex puts it this way: “We need leadership that can work within existing systems to improve them, while also pushing to replace what’s broken. Turning widespread political resignation and apathy into unbridled hopeful activism needs as many leaders as we can muster.”
As the Green Party approaches its leadership decision, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The party stands at a crossroads, buoyed by recent electoral gains and a public increasingly anxious about inequality and climate change. Whether Polanski’s blend of activism, communication, and strategy will be enough to take the Greens to the next level remains to be seen. But if the past week’s debates and endorsements are any indication, he’s already sparked a conversation the party—and the country—can’t ignore.
With the leadership contest in full swing and public attention fixed on the Greens’ next move, all eyes are on Zack Polanski. For supporters like Essex, the hope is that Polanski can channel the energy of grassroots movements and translate it into real political change—not just for the party, but for the nation as a whole.
