When Jeremy Corbyn was the future of Britain’s left, he promised a “kinder, gentler” politics. Now the new Green Party leader Zack Polanski is making his claim for that mantle, he’s pitching himself as an “eco-populist” – and like the populists on the right he opposes, he seems willing to play extremely rough.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in Walthamstow, East London, where Polanski is taking such a strong personal interest that he has created speculation he’s looking to challenge incumbent Labour MP Stella Creasy for the seat at the next election.
The latest online spat between the two seems to have been launched in the wake of the government’s new proposed crackdown on asylum seekers and refugees – which Creasy has publicly opposed, including in the pages of The New World. A user on X publicly messaged Creasy saying “we KNOW you don’t agree with this shit… time to come on over to @thegreenparty”.
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Creasy replied robustly, saying “I don’t do cults or affectation politics – we need proper socialism not more sound bites”, referencing a common complaint among Labour MPs that Polanski’s “cut bills, tax billionaires” is a catchy slogan with very little substance behind it.
Perhaps Creasy hit a nerve – as Polanski posted directly in the 46,000-member “Walthamstow Life” Facebook group. “Proper socialism like traumatising kids through deporting them,” he posted. “We need to make sure all these Labour MPs lose their seats at the next election.”
Creasy is understood to be – justifiably – aggrieved by this post, made in her local Facebook group and falsely representing her stance on the government’s policy, which she had repeatedly publicly opposed.
Green Party watchers wondered if Polanski knew what “populism” actually meant when he embraced the “eco-populist” label. Having seen him apparently deliberately distort Stella Creasy’s stance on asylum – at a time when trust in politics is in crisis, and MPs receive relentless threats and abuse – one suggested he knew what he was doing after all. If nothing else, the era of “kinder” and “gentler” is certainly past…
