“We really don’t want to see a division between the parliamentary Green Party and the extra-parliamentary Green Party; that would make no sense at all,” they stated. “I don’t think anyone is really anticipating that outcome. I’m confident the party will unite.”
What a difference a year makes
Just a year ago, the situation was very different. The cheerful Greens quadrupled their number of MPs to four in the 2024 general election, marking their most successful result ever. “The mood is entirely jubilant,” Polanski told POLITICO at last fall’s party conference.
By this summer, the leadership contest had plunged the party into a bitter internal battle. Ramsay and Chowns — who captured their seats from the right-wing Conservatives in 2024 — promised to use their platform at the heart of Westminster to further expand the voter base the Greens had begun to establish at that election.
Doubling down on a proven electoral strategy to clinch seats, the pair argued, was key to securing more. That strategy involves “building on the lessons that we’ve learned in recent years about how to appeal to a sufficiently broad range of voters in a given area so that we can earn their trust and vote come election time,” Chowns said in an interview for POLITICO’s Westminster Insider, ahead of Tuesday’s result.
Polanski — deputy leader since 2022 — instead proposed a radical shift in how the party seeks votes from the start.
He vowed to challenge the government on welfare cuts and its response to the war in Gaza. “My message to Labour is very clear,” he said. “We are not here to be disappointed by you. We are not here to be concerned by you. We’re here to replace you.”
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