Zack Polanski has won the Greens leadership election by an overwhelming margin and will now become the sole head of the party.
It has been announced in the last few minutes that Mr Polanski has won by 20,411 votes to 3,705 cast for the joint leadership bid of Mr Ramsay and Dr Ellie Chowns.
The London Assembly member, who is not an MP, will now become the party’s only leader, replacing the previous co-leader model that saw MPs Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer lead the Greens.
He has beaten leadership rivals Mr Ramsay and Dr Chowns, both currently Green Party MPs, who ran on a joint ticket to be co-leaders and were seen as the continuity candidates – offering to build on the party’s success in the 2024 general election.
Mr Polanski, who is currently serving as deputy leader, has won the election on a platform to take the party in a different direction, with his offer of “eco-populism”, which he says will make the Greens a real alternative to Labour and Reform UK. He believes the party could do more to appeal to those on the progressive left.
He has said he wants to transform the party into a more visible, mass-membership movement, and told a hustings the Greens should combine “substance with clickbait”, alongside “storytelling”.
The results of the election were declared shortly after 11am on Tuesday, 2 September at a community centre in Waterloo, London.
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