Inside the fight for leadership of the Green Party: Continuity candidates v 'eco-populism'
Two continuity candidates on a joint ticket are going up against a self-described eco-populist for the leadership of the Green Party, ITV News Political Correspondent Shehab Khan reports
The Green Party has the same number of MPs as Reform UK, yet it hasn’t managed to shift the national debate in the way Nigel Farage’s movement has. That may soon change, as the party prepares to choose its next leader.
The contest pits two contrasting visions of the Greens’ future against one another. Current co-leader Adrian Ramsay MP and newly elected MP Ellie Chowns are running together on a joint ticket, facing off against Zack Polanski, a London Assembly member who calls himself an “eco-populist”.
For Ramsay and Chowns, the formula is clear: stick with the strategy that delivered record gains at the last general election, when the Greens grew from one MP to four. They believe steady growth is the path to long-term success.
“I want us to have dozens of MPs. I’m hugely ambitious for the Greens,” Chowns told ITV News.
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Polanski, a former actor, however, argues that the party needs to aim higher. Instead of incremental growth, he wants the Greens to position themselves as the natural home for voters disillusioned with Labour.
He wants the party to take on Westminster with bolder positions on social and economic issues, alongside environmental ones.
“At the very least, I want to see us holding the balance of power at the next election—and I don’t think that’s unrealistic. We know Labour are tanking in the polls,” he said.
His campaign has leaned heavily on polished, attention-grabbing social media videos. In one clip, filmed on a beach with white cliffs in the distance, he repeats the phrase: “The boats, the boats, the boats” - mocking what he calls an obsession in national politics.
The tactic is deliberate and Polanski openly admits he is borrowing from the playbook of Reform UK.
“I despise Nigel Farage’s politics and I never want to replicate that. But you can’t deny he tells a really effective story,” he said.
When I attended the leadership hustings in Brighton, it was clear that this comparison divided opinion. Polanski insisted the Greens should study how Farage reshaped politics from the margins, while his rivals recoiled.
“Zack’s been talking about needing to learn from Nigel Farage and things like that. I got into politics because I stand for the complete opposite,” Chowns said.
The disagreements haven’t just been about strategy; they’ve been personal at times. In a recent LBC interview, Ramsay repeatedly dodged questions about whether he liked Polanski. When I asked him again, he replied: “This election is not about personality, people can try and trivialise,” Ramsay told me. “I’ve worked effectively with Zach for years.”
Still, he stopped short of saying he actually likes his opponent.
Polanski admitted it stings. “It hurts a little bit, just on a personal level. But to be honest, I don’t really care. We’re professional colleagues.”
The other key dividing line between the candidates is Polanski's suggestion that the UK should leave NATO because he says Donald Trump has made the alliance less "reliable".
But Chowns disagrees: "I think now is not the time to be talking about leaving NATO... there's nothing about our membership of NATO that prevents us building closer relationships with European partners on NATO.
"Given what's happening on Europe's border, it's not the right time to withdraw," she said.
With the political landscape shifting in the UK, there is potentially an opportunity for the Greens. The rise of Reform UK shows that smaller parties are having more impact than we have seen before.
ITV News Election Analyst Professor Jane Green says, “we are seeing a level of fragmentation that we've never seen before and the splitting of votes away from the major parties.”
It is this that the Greens will hope to capitalise on.
But the party also faces a threat from Jeremy Corbyn's new left-wing party, which is yet to be given a name.
The former Labour leader announced last month he would be launching a "new kind of political party" alongside fellow independent MP Zarah Sultana.
Many of the members I spoke to in Brighton said they'd like the Greens to work together with Corbyn and Sultana.
Polanski says he wants people to know the Green Party stands for more than just environmental concerns: "Everyone knows the Green Party cares about the climate and the environment, but they don't know about our issues, on social justice, racial justice, economic justice."
While Chowns argued that the environment and inequality are connected. "We don’t see environmental issues as separate from social and economic issues - we’re campaigning for a fairer environment, society and economy, all of those things are interlinked," she said.
The party will choose a new leader every two years and this year the results will be announced on September 2.
The question for the party will be whether they want to go down the tested path that has delivered incremental success, or whether it’s time for a risk.
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