At the end of a long, hot summer Zack Polanski has been doing what he does best: reconnecting with his base. Over the past few weeks, the Green Party leader has been on the festival circuit, appearing at the aptly named Green Gathering in Chepstow, and at Womad festival at Wiltshire’s Neston Park. He has made Jeremy Corbyn-style addresses to gathered crowds, recorded live episodes of his podcast Bold Politics and taken selfies with sympathetic punters. A source close to him joked that it’s a “shame there’s been no Glastonbury this summer”.
This is Polanski’s chance to reset. In October, Green Party members will travel to Brighton for the party’s annual autumn conference. This is the Greens’ biggest gathering yet. In the 12 months since Polanski was elected, membership has ballooned from 68,000 to over 230,000. In recent months, this major expansion has led to what one source describes as “growing pains”. With an influx of new politically active people joining, this first major gathering of the new, expanded Green Party is likely to see some interesting debates.
One of those, as I have written before, is likely to be over defence policy. As things stand, the Green Party’s policy on defence is anti-nuclear weapons, states support for Ukraine as it resists Russian invasion and recognises the importance of Nato. It does not explicitly oppose increases to defence spending nor call for UK withdrawal from Nato but rather advocates reforming it from within.
However, at conference in October, a motion is being put forward in order to toughen up the party’s defence policy. The motion – A70 – has been brought by Paul Ingram, a member of the Green Party Council (the body which oversees the party’s culture, wellbeing and governance) and expert on nuclear disarmament. It calls for the Green Party to adopt a policy of withdrawal from Nato, explicit opposition to increases in defence spending and the removal of all US military bases from the UK.
The motion states: “We believe UK membership [of Nato] is incompatible with our policy seeking a world free of nuclear weapons”. Its supporters include Ashley Tubb, a Green Party member who the Times reported as having claimed that protests against the Iranian regime earlier this year “were instigated and armed by the Americans and the Zionists”. Tubb made these comments in a WhatsApp group with other Green Party members.
This motion is one of two defence policies which has made it onto the “prioritisation ballot” for conference. The other defence motion – A56 – was submitted by the party’s Peace Defence and Security Policy Working Group and proposes several changes, including that the party policy would be to initiate a “comprehensive defence review”. All Green Party members are able to submit their own motions for consideration at the party’s annual conference, but only a few actually get heard.
Though Polanski is not involved in this motion himself, it does align with some of his positions on defence policy. In an interview at the start of the year, Polanski suggested that the UK should withdraw from Nato, even though it is not official Green Party policy, and has argued for the expulsion of US troops from UK bases, though he has not explicitly opposed increases in defence spending.
But toughening up the Green Party’s defence policy is not supported by all of the party’s members. One Green Party source described the motion as “disastrous for the party’s credibility”. Both Ellie Chowns and Adrian Ramsay – two of the party’s MPs who ran against Polanski for the party leadership – have previously said they do not support the withdrawal from Nato.
Of the motion, a Green Party spokesperson said: “Members decide which motions are and are not debated at conference. We always have far more submitted than we have time to debate, so it is not possible to comment on any individual motions at this stage.” However, they added that: “one of the party’s core values is that ‘We look for non-violent solutions to conflict situations.’ Our current and any future development of our defence policies will reflect this and other core values.”
This is one of the tensions of the Green Party’s member-led system. Should this motion make it to the top of the prioritisation ballot, members will have the chance to vote on it at conference in October. It is a tricky road to follow.
Meanwhile, Polanski is hoping to use this year’s conference to convey a message. The party leadership has selected a theme for the year – which has yet to be revealed – to be a lens through which everything will be parsed. Polanski and his team are approaching this as a moment to claim the narrative, and come out fighting after his first, turbulent year in office. But when delegates arrive in Brighton on that October weekend, all eyes may not be on Zack Polanski. They might, instead, be on the conference floor.
[Further reading: Will Andy Burnham call an early election?]
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