GREENS leadership hopeful Zack Polanski has said the party should be open to working with Jeremy Corbyn’s left-wing group.
Polanski is challenging Green MPs Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns for the leadership of the party during an election this summer, and has been endorsed by around 100 councillors for the top job.
He has been the deputy leader of the Green Party of England and Wales since 2022.
The London Assembly member said he was open to a pact with anyone who could challenge the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
“We have an increasingly unpopular Labour government that not only doesn’t know how to handle it, but is actively making the conditions that are spurring on Nigel Farage even worse,” Polanski said in The Times.
“So I will ally myself with anyone who shares my and the Green Party’s values.”
Corbyn announced the launch of a new party, which does not yet have a name, last week. The Islington North MP and former Labour MP Zarah Sultana are set to “co-lead the founding of a new party”, with a leadership election to follow once it has been set up.
Several independent MPs are expected to join Corbyn and Sultana in the new party.
"Discussions are ongoing - and I am excited to work alongside all communities to fight for the future people deserve.”
Elsewhere, a source told The National that a small group of left-leaning Scots have been working behind the scenes to prepare the Scottish arm ahead of the Holyrood election.
However, with the party not yet fully-fledged, how many, if any, candidates it will stand is still up in the air.
Collective Scotland said in a statement it was looking to build "a full-fledged electoral alliance of the Scottish left" for next year's Holyrood election.
While the statement did not mention Corbyn or Sultana directly, it said that "as the left across Britain comes together to form a new political party, the Scottish left now has a similar opportunity to unite".
We previously told how Polanski said he could understand why Scots want independence after “decades of neglect” by Westminster.
