'We're ready to win': Zack Polanski vows Greens 'aren't messing around' as he attacks Starmer and Farage
Starmer, Farage, Palestine and a wealth tax all came up during his conference speech.
Green leader Zack Polanski has insisted his party is “ready to win” at the next election during a wide-ranging conference speech.
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Addressing Green MPs and members on Friday, newly-appointed party leader Zack Polanski called for a wealth tax on billionaires and attacked Sir Keir Starmer’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza.
Mr Polanski accused the Labour Party of appeasing Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, pinning their rise in the polls on Sir Keir’s lack of vision.
Branding Mr Farage a “Trump-loving, tax-avoiding, science-denying, NHS-dismantling corporate stooge”, Mr Polanski said: “The Prime Minister might call this an island of strangers. When Farage says jump, Labour might say ‘how high’.
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“But the Greens will never dance to the tune of a Trump-loving, tax avoiding, science-denying, NHS-dismantling corporate stooge.”
As Green Party members gave a standing ovation, Mr Polanski added: “You might as well stay on your feet, because I’m going to say, we’ll say it loud, we’ll say it clear: migrants and refugees are welcome here.”
He added: “We are under no illusion as to the threat we face in this county. A march in London addressed by a who’s who of the far right. A party leading in the polls with plans to deport our friends, our neighbours, our family members.
Mr Polanski described Sir Keir’s decision to recognise a state of Palestine as “deeply cynical and morbid” and accused the Government of being “an active participant in the murdering of the Palestinians”.
During his leader’s speech at Green Party Conference, he said: “When mass slaughter is happening in Palestine, we will not be silent. When governments try to silence dissent, we will not be silent.
“And when Keir Starmer, in one of the most deeply cynical and morbid acts I’ve seen in my lifetime, decides to recognise a Palestinian state at the same moment that his Government is an active participant in the murdering of the Palestinians, then we must never be silent.
“Let it be heard across our country, but a call that is now echoing around the world: we must stop selling arms to Israel, we must stop sharing intelligence, we will do everything we can to stop the genocide.”
On Labour’s decision to ban Palestine Action earlier this year, he said: “We cannot talk about stopping genocide without talking about draconian crackdown on the right to protest happening against those taking action for Palestine, using terrorist legislation to arrest hundreds and hundreds of protesters for simply holding up a sign.
“The proscription of Palestine Action must be withdrawn, and every parliamentarian, Labour, Tory, Reform, even Lib Dem, who failed to vote against it, need to hang their heads in shame.”
Mr Polanski called for a wealth tax on the richest 1 per cent of Britons, a popular policy the Labour Party has so far refused to implement.
Mr Polanski said: “This is a country that has so much going for it but we have been time and time again failed by a political class poisoned by extreme wealth.
“And you can see that poison every single day.
“Rough sleeping, it is up 164% since 2010. Half of renters are just one pay cheque away from losing their home.
“Water companies: they’re pumping sewage into our water and then charging us extra for that privilege.
“A country where we are all paying the cost of the selling-off of our shared assets. That’s right, it’s costing us £250 more each household, each year. That is the privatisation premium.
“A country where a tiny few have taken our power, our wealth. Things must change and, friends, it is time to take it back.”