A Green Party MP has said she wants to make sure her party is not “vulnerable to capture by extremists and racists” amid the continuing fallout from the “Zionism is racism” motion.
Party leader Zack Polanski is facing pressure after a failed attempt to become an MP and the backlash to the controversial motion passed by members at the Green conference last weekend.
Leadership criticism after by-election defeat
Mr Polanski attempted to put a positive spin on his defeat in Thursday’s Holborn and St Pancras by-election, saying the Greens had significantly increased their vote share in a usually safe Labour seat.
But the result has intensified criticism of his leadership.
One of his five MPs, Ellie Chowns, said there had been a “lack of leadership” from Mr Polanski on the Zionism motion – which he did not take part in – but that he now had an “opportunity” to bring the party together in its wake.
Concerns over policy-making process
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think it is clear that if we have policy, such significant and damaging policy, made by a vote of just 0.4% of our members, that something isn’t working in our structures and our policy-making process.
“And I don’t think that policy ‘Zionism as racism’ represents the views of the large majority of Green Party members, nor of people in the country.
“And I do think that it’s a problem that this has come to dominate the conversation about the Green Party over the past week.”
Asked if there were “extremists and racists” entering the Greens that needed to be dealt with, she said: “I don’t know if there are extremists and racists in my party, but I want to make sure that my party isn’t vulnerable to capture by extremists and racists.
“I want to make sure that my party’s policies represent the views of the majority of members of the Green Party who absolutely are not that sort of person at all.”
The motion passed at the Brighton conference with around 1,000 members voting in favour and some 800 against.
Calls for apology and resignation
Former Greens leader Caroline Lucas told the BBC’s Any Questions programme that Mr Polanski should apologise for missing the vote and “for the hurt that has been caused to so many people”.
Although she stopped short of saying Mr Polanski should resign, Ms Lucas said there were “huge issues” in the party that he should help to resolve.
She also suggested there had been “entryism”, in which activists joined the Greens solely to back last weekend’s motion rather than because they supported the party.
She said: “I think we need to make our party structures much more robust so it’s not the case going forward that 1,000 members – some of whom, frankly, have been encouraged to join the party simply to push this motion through – 1,000 members should not be deciding a policy of such significance on behalf of 220,000 members.”
Mr Polanski sought to distance himself from the vote on Friday saying he would only have supported an amended motion.
He told Sky News: “Ultimately, I agree with the substance of the motion. Where I disagree is the idea the Green Party should be deciding what the future of the region looks like.”
But his stance on the motion has brought calls for him to resign, with the chairwoman of the Jewish Greens, Vivien Lichtenstein, saying she was considering leaving the party and criticising his failure to take part in the debate as a “dereliction of duty”.
Mr Polanski has said it would be up to Green Party members whether he continues as leader, with a scheduled leadership vote due next year.
Asked how confident he was to be re-elected as leader, he told Sky News: “That’s going to be up to the members and that’s going to be up to the leadership election that happens next summer.
“What I’m experiencing, though, is an immense amount of people who are saying actually they’ve never been prouder to be a Green Party member.”
A YouGov poll published on Friday found 47% of people who voted Green at the last election thought he should remain leader, with only 22% saying he should go.
But among the wider public, only 20% said he should stay as leader and 34% said he should resign, with 47% telling the pollster they were unsure.
