Green Leader Zack Polanski Calls for ‘Reset’ in Relations With the Labour Party Under Andy Burnham

Green Party leader Zack Polanski has called for a “reset” of relations with the Labour Party under its more “left” wing leader in Andy Burnham, saying the hostility between the parties had become “dangerous” under the leadership of Keir Starmer.

His comments came in a packed Q&A with Byline Times editor Hardeep Matharu at Womad festival in Wiltshire over the weekend.

Polanski, who leads the Green Party in England and Wales, claimed credit for the departure of Starmer from Government, calling it “my biggest achievement” in the job.

Polanski told the crowd in the ‘World of Words’ tent hosted by Byline Times: “I think my biggest achievement in [my] first year may turn out to be playing a role in seeing Keir Starmer replaced as Labour leader by someone to his left — and I choose those words carefully, because I do think Andy Burnham is to Starmer’s left.”

He added: “If anyone from Labour is listening, this is what I want them to hear most — the toxicity between me, the Green Party and Labour over the past year has been deeply unhelpful for British politics. I’d go further: it’s been dangerous.”

He said the killing of politicians – including most recently Reform’s Ann Widdecombe – is “connected to the same culture.”

“I hope there can be a reset — I’m not going to stop criticising the Labour Government, and I don’t expect them to stop criticising us, but it doesn’t need to be personal. It should be about policy, about improving people’s lives, about facts and evidence — not personal attacks on character,” Polanski said.

Polanski raised the example of Labour accusing the Green party of wanting to turn playgrounds into “crack dens”. Labour has also repeatedly claimed Polanski uses “his platform to sow division and grievance” and focused on past revelations about him.

Labour accused him of “chickening out” of the Gorton & Denton by-election, which the Greens then went on to win, and issued press releases claiming Polanski has a “blueprint for a drug-ridden Britain [that] would turn children’s playgrounds into crack dens.”

The left-wing leader drew a contrast between Starmer crossing the chamber to shake Farage’s hand on his election as an MP, versus Labour’s “full-on onslaught” attack tweet within an hour of his own election as Green Party leader, pointing to a Sun sting in which the Polanksi once offered hypnosis sessions to a journalist and suggested he could enlarge her breasts (Polanski has repeatedly apologised and claims he was misrepresented).

The Green Party leader issued a demand for proportional representation before the next election, claiming Prime Minister Burnham already “has the mandate to implement PR”. Burnham, a supporter of electoral reform, has said he wants it to be in the party’s next manifesto. Labour’s 2024 manifesto did not mention proportional representation, instead saying: “Labour is committed to strengthening our democracy and upholding the integrity of elections.”

“It is time for PR, and we need PR at the next general election,” Polanski said.

Despite signalling that he would be open to working with Burnham’s Government on these issues, Polanski raised his concerns about the re-appointment of the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood , who he said has “pursued some of the most regressive migration policies imaginable: cruel deportation videos, extending indefinite leave to remain from five to ten years for asylum seekers, people often fleeing war.”

Media Attacks and Controversies

In the wide-ranging Q&A, Polanski hit back at media attacks on him and his personal life.

Recent media stories leapt on Polanski’s prior claims to have been a Red Cross “spokesperson”.

“I used to volunteer my time hosting Red Cross fundraisers — they’d give me a script to read to an audience about their work on the climate crisis and humanitarian emergencies. I called myself a ‘spokesperson’ rather than an MC, and there was a week of headlines about it. Most people, hearing that story, just laugh,” Polanski said.

He dismissed the story and others like it as “nothing burgers”.

On the ongoing row over potentially unpaid council tax while living on a house boat, Polanski says he still cannot pay back any council tax owed on a second property months on from the Times revelations, because “the council and the [Valuation Office]… still don’t know who I should pay it to”.

“If you go to the strict letter of the law, technically I haven’t paid — I might still end up owing it — but any reasonable person can see that when you’re trying this hard to pay and they won’t take your money, it isn’t the scandal the BBC and others tried to make it.”

Related reading: BBC Laura Kuenssberg Show Accused of Anti-Green Bias After Cancelling Zack Polanski Interview

Polanski told Matharu: “I worked as an actor, in nightclubs, doing admin — and, briefly, as a hypnotherapist. My point is this gets disparaged by the right-wing press, who mock the fact I’ve had lots of jobs.

“Ask any creative — actor or musician — living in London in the 2010s, and they were doing various jobs to pay the rent. I sometimes had to walk to work because I couldn’t afford the bus. That’s not a hardship story — I had the safety net of the bank of Mum and Dad, which not everyone has — but I wanted to make my own way, so I was walking to work, or going to universities for the free food. I lived a very different life to the one I live now, and I don’t think everyone needs to have done that, but it is a bonus in politics: when I meet people where they’re at, I’ve often had a similar or parallel experience to theirs.”

Personal Life and Independent Media

Polanski and his partner are house-sharing at the moment. He pointed to media mockery of house sharing in his 40s, including a May tweet by Telegraph podcast host (and GB News presenter) Camilla Tominey, where she commented: “Is he still at uni?”

The Green Party leader said: “I know so many people in their forties and fifties in the same position…[The] Westminster media bubble’s assumptions about how people live are deeply destructive — which is exactly why we need independent media, like Byline Times and others.”

He also praised Byline Times: “Even when Byline Times has scrutinised me, and I can think of examples, I’ve welcomed it, because I know it isn’t being done because I’ve been bought off by oil and gas companies, private healthcare or gambling firms.”

And he rejected recent characterisations that he’s “disappeared” – claims that he’s vanished from public view, as suggested by “the Telegraph, LBC, even the BBC”, are “deeply dishonest”, he told festival attendees.

Green Party membership has surged under Polanski’s leadership, from around 65,000 members prior to the leadership race, to 230,000 as of June 2026. The Greens were polling around 9% in August 2026, compared to around 14% today, according to Politico‘s poll tracker.

The World of Words stage at the weekend also saw appearances from Labour peer Shami Chakrabarti, crossbench peer Victor Adebowale, musician Peter Gabriel, and Lincoln Project founder Rick Wilson.

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