WHEN Green MP Hannah Spencer won the Gorton and Denton by-election, it seemed as though the party had truly turned the tide on British politics.
No longer a fringe outfit and turning a huge surge in membership and in the polls into tangible electoral success, it looked like they had finally cracked a stubborn UK political system, with charismatic leader Zack Polanski the key cog in this thriving machine.
But a poll this week showed all the gains made under Polanski since he became leader almost a year ago have been all but lost. The poll from More in Common showed Labour having overtaken Reform for the first time in more than a year, while the Greens only polled at 8%, their lowest vote share in months.
Back in October, they had hit the highs of 15%.
There are now serious questions as to whether Polanski, long heralded as the Greens’ saviour, could be becoming a thorn in their side.
Having not been seen much in the media since the by-election, this week he has found himself scrambling after inadvertently resharing a social media post that featured a man wearing a black T-shirt with the message “We’re only making plans for Nigel” and an image of a guillotine. He’s refused to apologise to Farage despite saying he takes responsibility for not looking at the post properly.
The only other significant appearance from Polanski was when he received attention for retweeting an X post which accused police officers of violently kicking a stabbing suspect in the Golders Green attack in the head after he had already been incapacitated.
It led to Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley writing an open letter criticising the politician over the repost and then Polanski hitting back at him saying this was “not an appropriate way to do politics”.
It’s certainly been a difficult time for the Green Party since Gorton and Denton. There was no obvious route to any success in Makerfield, plus their original candidate there ended up having to apologise for social media posts in which he described an attack on ambulances run by a Jewish charity as a “false flag”.
In Clacton, as keen as they might have been to clinch another seat, they had little choice but to follow everyone else’s lead in rebelling against Farage’s move to initiate the contest.
But there are now legitimate questions as to whether what seems to be a pattern of carelessness on social media from Polanski could be affecting their following.
That said, Prime Minister Andy Burnham is also giving the Greens a bit of a headache. The Greens were able to thrive easily when Keir Starmer was seen as so wooden and lacking any political substance, but Burnham is – at least currently – being seen as a breath of fresh air.
He has honed in on the promise of “hope” in many of his speeches, a word the Greens have packaged a lot of their campaigning around, and he has talked about the likes of taxing wealth and tackling homelessness.
Burnham is the one now enjoying the new leader bounce that Polanski was riding 10 months ago.
What seems to be clear is, whatever is to blame for the Greens’ decline, they need to be readying themselves on the sidelines to pounce when Burnham’s honeymoon period inevitably ends.
