Zack Polanski was elected Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW) on 2 September 2025, soundly beating joint-ticket rivals, Adrian Ramsay MP and Ellie Chowns MP.
Previously he had been Deputy Leader since 2022 and was – and continues to be – a member of the London Assembly (having been elected in May 2021).
As Leader – and previously as Deputy Leader – he has been a member of the Green Party Executive (GPEx) since at least 2022.
Polanski is telegenic and charismatic and has been inspiring a massive rise in party membership since becoming leader. But here on our Watchlist we want to draw attention to concerns about:
- his hardline position on gender ideology
- his role on GPEx where he has voted against taking action to resolve problems with the disciplinary system that are a legal and financial threat to the party
- his direction away from the party’s ecological roots
- his past – his change of name, his previous role with the Lib Dems and, last and probably least, the 2013 ‘boobgate’ episode that has been widely reported
From 2026 reports about these concerns will appear as posts on our news pages.
More resources
See thegreenlight.blog/tag/zack-polanski
Gender ideology
See concernedgreens.uk/zack-polanski-women-can-have-a-penis
While campaigning for the Deputy Leader’s role in 2022 against Shahrar Ali, Polanksi compared Ali to Trump and Putin.
Green Party disciplinary system
See thegreenlight.blog/2025/10/01/how-zack-polanski-will-bankrupt-the-green-party
In this 2023 interview with Left Foot Forward, Polanski stated that members who hold sex-realist views should not be in the party.
While initially saying that he “can’t comment on disciplinary procedure”, when pressed he says that the small number of members who take a contrary view to the party’s policies on trans rights – specifically those members who claim that trans women are men and trans men are women – should not have a place in the Greens. He says: “I’m really clear that if you want to misgender someone then that is transphobic and transphobia is not welcome in the Green Party.”
The party’s ecological roots
Polanski promotes an ‘eco-populism’ which tends to sideline the traditional green values about people and planet and instead prioritise issues like Gaza, Reform UK and household bills. See:
- Analysis by Sandy Irvine: Why Zack Polanski is not a Green
- Blog at greensinexile.org.uk/ecology-of-polanski-green-party (September 2025) about whether the party is straying from its ecological roots under its new leadership.
Polanski’s past
Polanski will probably be forever dogged by the ‘boobgate’ episode in 2013 while he had a practice in Harley Street and offered hypnotherapy to increase the size of a woman’s breasts. Polanski has ‘apologised for his past actions and said he never believed them‘. 