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“Stop reading this. Go campaign in Holborn and St Pancras,” a sign declared at this year’s Green Party conference.
It is rare for political parties to tell attendees to leave their annual gatherings. It is even rarer that it comes from the party leader.
But the banner was proudly draped over a stall set aside for Zack Polanski’s Bold Politics podcast this weekend.
The sign sums up a tension that exists among a party already rowing about potentially passing a motion to declare “Zionism is racism”.
The Green Party leader is running for the next MP for Keir Starmer’s old seat in Holborn and St Pancras, a Labor stronghold.
The problem is, the by-election is a week away – and, according to green sources, the last weekend of door knocking is usually when they manage to win more voters.
Polanski’s team tried to delay the conference so members could focus on the winners of North West London, but the party leaders refused.
A party spokesman has since accused the Labor government of deliberately timing the by-election so that it would overshadow their conference.
Labor did not respond when asked for comment – the party appears to have adopted an approach of not even acknowledging its left-wing rivals.
His statement in response to Polanski’s keynote address did not even mention the Greens or the leader’s name, instead focusing on Burnham’s achievements.
Either way, Polanski clearly followed his own advice to focus on the campaign.
He arrived at the conference on Thursday night and left an hour after his speech on Friday afternoon, although the conference will last until 4.30pm on Sunday.
Asked about the conflicting events, the campaigners appeared nervous but insisted to HuffPost UK that there was no “separation”.
They claim that there will be a lot of door knockers and more than enough members at their “best attended conference”.
Nevertheless, it was hard to escape the feeling that the Greens were already laying the groundwork for a significant loss in the messy re-election.
Labor Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s popularity has soared and his party’s candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali is the frontrunner in the race.
Polanski – currently a London assembly member but with a large public profile – took a big risk in contesting the seat. He has a lot to lose.
Polanski told the Guardian he did not need to win the by-election to remain as Green leader, describing it as a “50/50” contest.
He said the election had ramifications for politics in the UK but “not for my leadership”.
The spokesmen told reporters that the fact there was even a chance the Greens could take the seat of a former prime minister showed “how incredibly successful Zack’s leadership has been”.
To an extent, they’re right: Polanski has overseen a major increase in membership for the Green Party, rising from 68,500 members to 230,000 in June.
They also stand by their prediction from August that they would secure between 30 and 50 deputies if a general election were to be held today.
However, POLITICO’s polls put the party in fourth place at 11% – the lowest score since last October, shortly after Polanski took over the leadership.
There are now concerns that he has peaked after coming second behind Reform in March, when the party rose to 18%.
Even a senior party figure admitted to HuffPost UK that Burnham is very popular among her own supporters.
They said: “He’s never hit the left, to be honest. I think we’ll give him a fair hearing until the Budget. But people really like him – unlike Starmer!”
Polanski also did not use his keynote speech to replace Labour, as he did last year, but to frame the Greens as a pressure group to move the government to the left.
“Vote Green and watch Labor move,” he told the party faithful.
But in autumn 2025, Polanski said: “We are here to replace Labour.”
Party sources later told reporters that the party leader’s speech still focused on the difference between “what Labor says and how it doesn’t actually act”.
“It’s a change of emphasis rather than us thinking we can’t replace the Labor Party,” they insisted.
Asked about the possibility of ever forming a coalition with the Labor Party on Friday, officials seemed unclear about their plan now that Burnham is in power.
“It would be up to the members after the general election,” they said, dodging the question.
It is a much weaker position than the one previously adopted by Polanski, when he ruled out doing a deal with a Starmer-led Labor Party.
But it shows how the Greens are currently in no man’s land as they struggle to retain their progressive base in the Burnham era.
The question is, will next week’s crunch vote give them a much-needed boost by electing Polanski – or relegate them to the sidelines once again?
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