Green Party Leader Zack Polanski has announced that he intends to stand in the by-election for Sir Keir Starmer’s constituency. The Telegraph has more.
The Green Party leader has vowed to “stand up for people struggling to pay their bills” if he is elected the new MP for Holborn and St Pancras in north London.
Polanski told the Camden New Journal on Thursday that he would put himself forward as the Green Party’s candidate before the party’s democratic selection process next week.
In a pitch to potential voters, he said he would “always fight their corner” and would be “never scared of big donors or the party whip” if he became an MP. He said: “Too often Labour has stood up for corporations and big money. I will stand up for people struggling to pay their bills.”
Sir Keir announced on Tuesday that he would stand down, saying the “time is right” to “pass the baton”. It came just before Andy Burnham made his first speech in the Commons as Prime Minister.
Polanski declared that the by-election, the date of which has not yet been confirmed, would be a chance “to make history”. If elected, he would become the Green Party’s first London MP.
Labour’s front-runner to take on Polanski is Sagal Abdi-Wali, a former child refugee from Somalia who is the leader of Camden council.
She came to the UK as a child refugee from Somalia in the early 1990s, and has said she has been a party supporter “as long as I can remember”.
The Greens won 10 council seats in the Camden area in the local election on May 7th, denting Labour’s lead significantly, but did not take the council. Polanski said the by-election would be a “two-horse race between Labour and Greens”.
Earlier this week, Polanski marked the anniversary of his election as Green Party leader following a year marred by a number of rows about antisemitism.
The Greens were plunged into a civil war earlier this year after the Telegraph revealed that activists had tabled a conference motion that called for Zionism to be classed as a “racist ideology”.
The motion was not fully debated, but Mr Polanski refused to denounce it, and the motion could be brought back at the party’s autumn conference next month.
He has served as a Green member of the London Assembly since May 2021, and previously worked as a hypnotherapist, an actor and in hospitality.
The party leader lives in Hackney, east London, and told the Camden New Journal that he had lived and worked in and around Sir Keir’s constituency “over many years”.
Polanski said: “I know it well and I love it. It represents so many of the things that makes London so special. I am so excited by the prospect of representing this place in Parliament.”
Worth reading in full.
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Pancreatic cancer.
Why would anyone not want to elect a snaggle-toothed tit-enhancer?
Well – another Loon in Parliament will be in-keeping with what it has become.
I think the House of Commons is probably just the right place for him. He has all the right attributes to sit amongst the rest of them.
Nailed. From 1997 ish our once great Parliament attracted and became inhabited by people of genuine stature. There are still Members who you would feel safe taking on patrol, but it seems they might now be in the minority, and in Labour, Green and Lib Dem Members a very tiny minority. Polanski would further dilute the quality.
“From 1997…attracted and became inhabited by people of geuine stature”
Surely you mean BEFORE.Since then it has become the dumping ground of mediocre and worse MPs. Unless your comment is tongue in cheek, of course.
I know, personal impressions and all that… but there is something extremely creepy about this Polanski guy. He sends shivers down my spine.
I don’t like politicians in general, but this guy is in a different league altogether. Just… brrrr.
He apparently is an antisemite and then changes his name from David Paulden to Zack Polanski? Off-the-scale weird.
It is weird in that he is actually Jewish.
Some say Hitler had Jewish ancestry.
He does that to me too. I wouldn’t like to meet him in a dark alley.
why anyone thinks he’s a person worth voting for is totally beyond me.
if this is the calibre of people in Westminster, then I shall have to make other living arrangements.
i would feel completely unsafe living under the auspices of people who clearly have personality disorders.
I loath polanski but we really don’t want any more sodding somalis in sodding parliament.
Yeah, what a choice…
Rock bottom
Zack Polanski (born David Paulden