Politics Live

Politics Live opened with the Green Party conference in Brighton, where leader Zack Polanski was due to speak. The programme reported that tens of thousands of new members had joined since he became leader, that the party had won a by-election and made local election gains, and it discussed whether that momentum could continue. In the studio, Zoe Grunewald said Green polling had fallen from around 21 per cent to around 10 or 11 per cent, and Russell Walfield said Polanski had cut through to younger voters and built pressure from the left. Baroness Jenny Jones was then interviewed about the party’s new private rents policy, which she said would stop private rents rising for three years, and she rejected warnings from the Institute for Fiscal Studies about unintended consequences. Asked about a conference motion declaring Zionism is racism, she said she would not comment because she was second-chairing the debate, and she also declined to take offence at the conference inclusive terminology guidance.

Harry Farley reported from Brighton that the mood was not triumphant, citing More in Common polling that showed a slump in Polanski’s approval after he criticised police over the Golders Green attack and later apologised. He said Andy Burnham was taking progressive voters from the Greens and that the Zionism motion was overshadowing the conference, with booklets being handed out urging support for it and many Green MPs not supporting it. The Board of Deputies of British Jews said the motion would make the Green Party the first electorally significant UK party in living memory to adopt what appeared to be an overtly anti-Semitic political platform, while Caroline Lucas had said she had serious concerns and that it could be seen as a sign Jewish people were not welcome in the party. Polanski’s speech celebrated record membership, over a thousand councillors, a Senedd breakthrough, a Westminster by-election win and local election gains, and he set out policies on affordable rent, council housing, tax on the richest, public ownership and climate action. He also spoke about Palestine, free speech, the right to protest and trans rights.

After the speech, the panel said it was predictable but confident, with strong cheers for environmental policy and for the call to deprescribe Palestine Action. Deputy leader Rachel Millward highlighted the emergency brake on rents and the focus on climate, said the Greens were influencing Labour’s agenda, and argued rent controls could work. Asked about the Zionism motion, she said any member could bring a motion to conference and it would be debated democratically; she said the party was united against Netanyahu’s Israel and what the United Nations calls genocide in Gaza and apartheid in Palestine, and called on the government to stop trading with Israel and supplying arms.