Zack Polanski will deliver only his second speech as Green Party leader at the Brighton conference, but the event comes at a critical moment as the party struggles with sharply falling poll numbers.
The self-styled “eco-populist” initially enjoyed a significant boost in support after winning the leadership just over a year ago.
Since reaching a high point in March, however, the Greens’ support has almost been cut in half. The decline has followed a succession of internal controversies and Labour’s move further to the left under Andy Burnham.
Mr Polanski is also expected to lose next week’s Holborn and St Pancras by-election, after taking the gamble of standing to become an MP in Keir Starmer’s former constituency.
As the Green Party conference opens in Brighton this weekend, speculation is growing that one of Mr Polanski’s deputies could mount a leadership challenge.
Mothin Ali, a Leeds City councillor, is reportedly preparing a possible bid in the next Green leadership contest, which is scheduled to take place next year.
The party is also embroiled in a row over whether broadcasters will be permitted to show Mr Polanski’s leadership address live on Friday afternoon, given the restrictions surrounding the by-election.
At the Brighton gathering, attention is expected to focus heavily on an increasingly heated dispute over a proposed Green Party debate on a motion describing Zionism as a form of racism.
Zack Polanski faces a major test at only his second Green Party conference as leader, with the party’s support in the polls continuing to slide
Caroline Lucas, the former Green leader, has criticised the motion as “divisive” and cautioned that it “could be seen as a sign that Jewish people aren’t welcome in the party”.
Speaking at Labour’s conference in Liverpool this week, deputy leader Lucy Powell said she was “confident” her party would retain Holborn and St Pancras.
Ms Powell argued that voters who had previously supported Labour but switched to the Greens during Sir Keir’s premiership were now reconsidering their decision following Mr Burnham’s arrival in power.
A loss for Mr Polanski in Thursday’s by-election would deal a severe setback to his position as Green Party leader.
He is said to have asked the Greens’ ruling executive committee to delay the Brighton conference so the party could concentrate on the Holborn and St Pancras campaign. The request was rejected.
Rob Ford, a professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said Mr Polanski’s first year in charge had brought “many more voters off the fence”, but that most had ultimately moved away from the Greens.
Writing for Sky News, he said the sharp deterioration had occurred alongside Labour’s appointment of a more popular leader and a substantial improvement in the ratings of Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch.
“Polanski and the Greens need to decide how to respond to Labour’s moves to close down space on the Left,” he wrote.
YOU MAY ALSO READ: Arkansas Gem Hunter Says He Found a Possible $1 Million Diamond
He continued: “Whichever direction they choose, the Greens may also need to consider whether Polanski remains an electoral asset after a turbulent first year in office, during which his poll ratings have fallen rapidly.
“Although Labour’s gains from the Greens have become more pronounced since Andy Burnham became prime minister, Green support had already begun to weaken before he took over.”
Rachel Millward, another Green deputy leader, offered a more positive assessment, arguing that both the party and Mr Polanski had “set the political agenda” over the past year.
She told Times Radio: ‘The reality is that it’s Zack Polanski who brought the nation Andy Burnham.
‘And if we hadn’t had the success of the Green Party in this last year since Zack’s been leading, which has been unprecedented, phenomenal success…
‘…If we hadn’t had that much pressure on Labour, then we’d probably still be in the Starmer regime, which was pretty much ushering in a Reform government with its lurch to the Right.
‘So actually, what we’re seeing now is that we’ve set the political agenda and the Government is picking that up.’
In his conference speech on Friday, Mr Polanski is expected to call for a triple lock-style guarantee for private renters to ease young adults’ housing costs.
He will set out plans for a ‘three-year emergency brake’, which would temporarily limit rent rises to the lowest of either Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation, wage growth or 2 per cent.
These are similar metrics to the ones used to uprate the state pension each year, which rises by the highest of either inflation, wage growth or 2.5 per cent.
‘For too long, landlords have been able to hike prices way beyond wages,’ Mr Polanski is expected to say.
He will describe ’25-year-olds who can’t find a job, no matter how many tens or hundreds of applications they put in, who can’t imagine ever being able to afford to rent even a room of their own, never mind being able to put down roots in their own home’.
The party leader will also describe ’30, 35-year-olds moving back to their parents’ place with their partners in tow, sometimes their kids too’, warning that for many of them ‘times get tougher and those months turn to years’.
Mr Polanski is expected to say: ‘Today I’m calling for a three-year emergency brake on private rents – no rent rises above CPI, wage growth or 2 per cent – whichever is lower.
‘No sudden hikes, no evictions under the guise of rent rises, no more fear and uncertainty.
‘That emergency brake would give renters vital breathing space. Let wages begin to catch up with the rents that have outstripped them for too long.
‘And give government time to develop a national fair rents guarantee – to keep rents fair and affordable for everyone, forever.’