LONDON — The U.K. Green Party has elected Zack Polanski as its new leader.
Polanski — who has been deputy leader since 2022 and is currently a member of the London Assembly — won 20,411 votes (85 percent), compared to 3,705 for MPs Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns, who ran on a joint ticket.
The announcement Tuesday morning wraps up a fraught leadership contest which saw senior leadership clash over the future direction of the left-wing party.
Polanski worked as a hypnotherapist and actor before entering politics, and used the leadership contest to stake out positions on the left of British politics, including as a staunch defender of refugee rights. The Greens’ message to the Labour government, he said in his victory speech, was: “We are here to replace you.”
Polanski previously said that the party could appeal to more voters by being “deeply embedded in communities” and argued the Greens were not offering a strong enough counter to Nigel Farage’s populist Reform, which is currently leading national polls.
Ramsay and Chowns had promised to use their platform at the heart of Westminster to double down on the party’s existing electoral strategy for targeting a broad coalition of voters.
Polanski has suggested the party should also elect a parliamentary leader in Westminster, but it’s unclear when or how that role will be filled.
This story was updated to include details from Polanski’s victory speech.
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