The Green Party has suffered a sharp decline in support, with fewer Britons now willing to consider voting for it than before Zack Polanski became leader. Pollsters YouGov found Britons tend to see the Greens as “weak, out of touch, incompetent and serving their own interests”.
The scathing polling comes as the Greens prepare to start their conference in Brighton on Friday. Support for the Greens peaked in March when the party looked on track to transform Britain’s political landscape, just as Reform challenged Labour and the Conservatives from the Right.
Favourability falls under Polanski
YouGov found that over the course of Mr Polanski’s leadership, the Greens’ net favourability rating has fallen from +5 to -19. The Greens scored a major victory over Labour and Reform in February when candidate Hannah Spencer won the Gorton and Denton by-election.
But while 28% of Britons were prepared to consider voting for the Greens in March, that figure is now 23%. Now, just 21% of people think Mr Polanski is doing a good job, while nearly half (48%) think he is performing poorly.
Voters' negative perceptions
YouGov found nearly half of Britons (47%) used at least one negative term in a three-word description of the Green leader, with just one in six (18%) using a positive term. A majority of Britons (53%) now see the Greens unfavourably. Half see the party as weak, with only 1 in 10 feeling it is strong.
YouGov reports that swathes of the public tend to see the Greens as “out of touch (46% to 21%), incompetent (45% to 20%), serving their own interests (44% to 32%), untrustworthy (40% to 24%) and caring only about a select few (40% vs 29%)”. In a further blow, just 26% see them as moderate or tolerant.
Key test in Holborn and St Pancras
A key test for the party looms on October 8 when Mr Polanski will seek to win Sir Keir Starmer’s former seat of Holborn and St Pancras. According to Politico’s poll of polls, for a brief period in March and April, the Greens tied with the Conservatives on 18%, with Labour on 17% and Reform in first place on 25%.
Its most recent snapshot puts Labour in first place (26%), ahead of Reform (23%), the Conservatives (19%), the Greens (11%), the Liberal Democrats (10%) and Restore Britain (5%).
