Do we like Zack Polanski?
Our score: 6 out of 10. A clear record backing LGBTQ+ people and climate action, held back by a run of corrections about his own claims and a couple of reckless posts.
Polanski grew up as David Paulden in a Jewish community in Salford, and at 18 swapped his surname for a version of his family's original one. He studied drama, worked in community theatre, then trained as a hypnotherapist. Politically he started with the Lib Dems, joined the Greens in 2017 and won a London Assembly seat in 2021.
The climb has been quick. He became deputy leader in 2022, then took the leadership in September 2025 with 20,411 votes to 3,705 for the rival joint ticket. In February the Greens won the Gorton and Denton by-election, their first ever parliamentary by-election win. His pitch is what he calls eco-populism: a wealth tax on billionaires, a £15 minimum wage and climate action tied to the cost of living.
Then there's the truth-telling. He admitted he was wrong to call himself a British Red Cross spokesperson, saying he used the wrong word. In October the Mail reported that all four of his grandparents were born in England, which sits awkwardly with his speeches about ancestors facing the Nazis, and the party called Jewish family history confusing and muddled. None of it is a crime, but it's a pattern of loose claims that opponents are happy to seize on.
Two posts also landed him in strife. After the Golders Green stabbing he shared a post criticising police, apologised for sharing it in haste, and his approval rating reportedly fell 14 points in a week. In July he shared an Instagram set that included a guillotine T-shirt with Nigel Farage's name; he removed it, called it an inadvertent mistake and refused to apologise, while Reform UK went to the Met, which said it was conducting inquiries.
On the money side, the GLA's monitoring officer took no further action after complaints from Labour and the Conservatives over council tax on his houseboat. He apologised for an unintentional mistake and said he believed it was included in his mooring fees. It's tabloid-flavoured, but it's closed.
Overall: he walks the walk on the people and planet stuff, and doesn't hide from hard interviews. In January he told NME that leaders who ignore why people are angry will just miss them. The cost is a leader who is sloppy with facts about himself and quick on the share button, which is a real concern, but not a harmful one.