LONDON — The Green Party has never been so successful.

So, naturally, they are having a big internal fight.

Fresh from winning a record four members of parliament at last year’s general election, members want the green shoots to keep growing — but can’t agree how.

A leadership election happens for the Greens every two years, and sometimes sees the incumbent re-elected unopposed. This time, though, there’s a challenger, set on sparking a proper battle of ideas from the left.

Adrian Ramsay has co-led the Greens since 2021 and is running again on a joint ticket with Ellie Chowns, who replaces outgoing Co-Leader Carla Denyer. All three were elected to the House of Commons in the 2024 general election, alongside former Co-Leader Siân Berry, marking the best parliamentary night for the Green Party in its history.

Left-wing insurgent Zack Polanski is the challenger, standing against the pair from outside parliament. The party’s current deputy leader, Polanski has served in the London Assembly since 2021 — and thinks a more radical message will strengthen the Greens’ appeal.

As Britain gets used to five-party politics, the Greens consistently poll around 10 percent. This could provide crucial leverage after the next election and give Labour, elected on a landslide last year but struggling in the polls, a bloody nose.

Westminster: embrace or shun?  

Whoever wins, party members want to maximize their influence if voters deliver an uncertain verdict. 

Since its founding as the PEOPLE Party in 1972, the Greens have rejected the traditional political mold. They only created a leader position in 2007, don’t have a whipping system, and had no MPs in Westminster until 2010.

Yet after quadrupling their number of Commons seats, Ramsay believes utilizing the center of power might not be so bad after all — and makes a case for playing the Westminster game.

“If you’re not there in the heart of British political debate, you’re not able to hold the prime minister to account [and] challenge the government,” Ramsay told POLITICO. “We are the ones that are in practise … representing the party’s positions.” 

Ramsay argued that keeping two MPs in charge of the party — visible in parliament, invited on to the airwaves — means it can influence politics “from a position of strength.” 

Polanski, by contrast, is trading on his outsider status. While he promises to work closely with the four MPs, he sees the party’s future beyond Westminster.

“Parliament is the means to get to the end, which is to transform society,” he told POLITICO. “But you don’t just transform society in parliament.”

He wants to prioritize community organizing to win over people “who aren’t even in the party yet, because they don’t think politics is really going to change anything.”

Polanski said that if he wins the leadership election — which wraps up September 2 — then MPs would still elect a parliamentary leader, allowing a balance of Westminster representation and a leader able to travel around the country and tap into that grassroots energy.

For Ramsay, that idea is simply impractical, and risks mixed messages. The incumbent co-leader highlights Polanski’s support for Britain leaving NATO — which is not Green Party policy.

“There’s a reason why mature, impactful, successful parties at the heart of British political debate have their leaders in parliament,” Ramsay said. “We need to be part of the center of British politics, not fighting on the sidelines.”

Powers of persuasion

Ramsay and Chowns won their rural seats from the Conservatives last July. They are pushing for the party to continue a strategy which they argue is paying dividends.

“Carla and I came in with a very clear strategic focus, and we made sure all of the party’s efforts and strategy was aligned behind that,” Ramsay argues. “It would be crazy to throw that out.”

But another core Green demographic is in urban areas. Denyer, the outgoing co-leader, bagged her Bristol Central seat in 2024 by defeating Labour frontbencher Thangam Debbonaire in the traditionally progressive city, sprinkling some rare rain on Labour’s election parade.

The Greens came second to Labour in 39 constituencies, including 18 London seats. “That’s obviously the first place to start” when targeting more seats, Polanski argued.

He said building a coalition of former Labour and Tory voters alongside previous non-voters could only happen “by being deeply embedded in communities” — and suggested the current leadership was not rising to the challenge posed by populist parties on the right like Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. 

 “We need to take action quickly,” he said. “Incremental change is just not going to cut it. We need to move much faster.” 

“Anyone who feels that you can appeal in an urban area just by focusing your effort on a narrow demographic is not realistic,” Ramsay retorts.

Following Farage

The Greens agree with Farage on very little (maybe apart from electoral reform.) But they might mimic Reform UK’s model for growth.

Pollster Scarlett Maguire, director of Merlin Strategy, said the party’s steady uptick in the polls mirrors Reform’s gradual rise under its last leader Richard Tice, which demonstrated the “organic desire” for a populist party in the U.K.

Maguire believes there is “huge potential in the country for a more Momentum-[Jeremy]-Corbyn-like Green Party” which targeted an urban, younger left-wing base. Momentum is the left-wing campaign group who helped propel Corbyn to the top of the Labour Party — although the party sank to an historic low under his leadership in the 2019 election.

The Greens could also expand by embracing Labour exiles and outsider MPs. Independent MPs, including Corbyn himself and suspended Labour left-winger Zarah Sultana, might be sympathetic to a Green message under Polanski’s leadership. Polanski has been wooing Sultana for a potential defection since as long ago as last September, when he said he would “love to see her join the Green Party.” Sultana did not respond to a request for comment.

Anyone who backs Green values, including in parliament, should join the party, Polanski said: “I don’t think it helps anyone for the left to be further fractured or to be creating further silos.”

Yet the strategy runs exactly that risk: the Greens could split the center-left vote, just as Reform did against the Tories last year, and make a progressive government harder.

“The Greens have the potential to be a really big spoiler for Labour,” Maguire said. “If you think about how … [Farage’s old outfit] UKIP worked as a pressure party on the Conservatives, it wasn’t about the MPs returned. It was about the pressure they could place on them from splitting their votes.”

Party figures insist that if they vote Green, they’ll get Green. 

“Greens have been elected basically all around the country under all kinds of different conditions, all kinds of different seats,” said peer and former Leader Natalie Bennett, who isn’t endorsing a candidate in this race.

That message matches the one coming from fellow insurgent Farage, who held a press conference last month pushing the slogan “Vote Reform, get Reform.”

“At a time when people are turning away from the political establishment like never before … Greens are there to be the ones offering a real alternative to Reform,” said Ramsay.

“The voters are really, really hungry for something different,” said Bennett. “We’ve got to make sure that we give them great stories, great narratives, and a great overall picture.”

Additional reporting by Abby Wallace.