Zack Polanski’s Greens see surge of support amid party’s anti-Israel stance

Nearly one third (31 per cent) of those who voted Labour at the last election say they would now switch to Greens, compared with 43 per cent who would remain with Labour.

Anthony Wells, global head of politics and elections at YouGov, said the Greens had an apparent “winners’ aura” after winning their fifth seat in this parliament.

This made the party appear like “a more viable option and less of a wasted vote,” Wells said – but he added that this could fade with time.

The party’s steep advance in the polls comes the same week that its leader suggested that it would sever ties with the US and Israel over the war with Iran.

Polanski, who is Jewish and has said he was raised a Zionist, called the US and Israel “rogue states” and urged Sir Keir Starmer to “stand up” to Donald Trump.

There has also been concern over support for extremism in parts of the Green Party.

Deputy leader Mothin Ali faced criticism after attending an anti-war rally over the weekend where dozens of Iranian regime flags were displayed and the US flag was allegedly burnt.

He has repeatedly come under scrutiny for his comments on Gaza too. Shortly after the Hamas-led October 7 attacks, Ali posted on social media that “indigenous people have the right to fight back”. He later apologised and said he did not support violence.

Last month it was reported that Ali had claimed antisemitism was being used as a “weapon” to silence criticism of Israel, a comment made while backing a “Zionism is racism” motion expected to be debated at the Greens’ conference later this year.

Polanski has said he would support the controversial anti-Zionist motion if it were explicitly linked to the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza.

Ali also recently clashed with Labour MP David Taylor after an old Facebook post emerged in which Ali appeared to suggest several Labour MPs were “bought and paid for” by Israel.

When Taylor objected to the post, the Green deputy asked him “how much did you get?”, and stated that Taylor belonged to “the genocide party”.

Previous YouGov polling in 2024 found that Green voters were the most likely to describe themselves as anti-Israel.

Sixty per cent of Green supporters identified as anti-Israel then, and they were three times more likely to see Labour as pro-Israel, at 46 per cent, than anti-Israel, at 15 per cent.

The huge surge in support for the Greens has unsettled many in the Labour Party.

One Labour source said that defending the party’s “progressive” stance on Israel and Zionism would be crucial to drawing a clear red line with Greens.

“I really don't like living in a society where one party employs antisemitic campaign staff and another talks about the government enabling genocide, and is about to [vote on] a motion which says being a Zionist is unacceptable. And voters find both of them more attractive than us in a by-election,” they added.

Addressing Labour MPs on Monday night, the prime minister acknowledged that politics is “changing decisively” but insisted there remains a majority of voters who do not want to elect Nigel Farage or Zack Polanski.

“There is a mainstream majority in this country who neither want Nigel Farage nor Zack Polanski as their prime minister,” he said.

Labour ended up with its lowest polling score on record, according to the YouGov poll of 2,073 people, conducted on Sunday and Monday. This is only the second time the conservatives have recorded such a low rating. Reform dipped slightly, down one point to 23 per cent, while the Liberal Democrats remain unchanged at 14 per cent.