Disowning the Libs
Man in the Eye , Issue 1658

THE Green party's new leader, Zack Polanski, has been commendably open about his past as a boob-hypnotist, having once claimed in the Sun that he could make women's breasts grow bigger through the power of thought alone. Polanski has, however, been more circumspect about another embarrassing youthful escapade – his time as a Lib Dem.

In a recent gushing interview, the Financial Times assured its readers that "Polanski joined the Lib Dems in 2016 before moving to the Greens a year later". In reality he was an active Lib Dem for longer than that.

Polanski joined the party in the dying days of the Cameron-Clegg coalition, standing as a Lib Dem candidate in a Camden council by-election in March 2015. That September, he made a speech at the party conference, as the new Lib Dem London Assembly candidate for Barnet & Camden, finishing by inviting a gospel choir on stage. He then joined them in chanting "Lib Dem fightback" in close harmony.

Man of ambition
Polanski has deleted many of his tweets from this era, but former Lib Dem colleagues remember a "very driven" politician who immediately sought approval to stand as a parliamentary candidate.

At the time, the party was split between lefties and coalition-defending Cleggmaniacs, and Polanski gave the impression of sympathy to both groups. He praised "Nick" (Clegg) repeatedly in his conference speech, but was also a regular attendee of council meetings of the Social Liberal Forum (SLF), the party's leading left-wing pressure group.

"I found it hard to square the stuff he was telling us, about how he was against privatisation, with the pro-market views I'd heard from him at other party events," one SLF colleague told the Eye. "Then I realised he'd twigged that most rank-and-file members were SLF supporters; what he really wanted was the SLF's endorsement in selection contests."

This surprises a colleague from the rival right-wing Liberal Reform pressure group: "We thought he was one of us. He told us so when he came up to our stand at conference."

Richmond bark
What drove Polanski out of the Lib Dems? Multiple sources point to the Richmond Park by-election in December 2016.

This came at a low point for the party, after its devastating 2015 election result, when winnable seats for ambitious Lib Dems were scarce. Polanski, then living in Camden, put his name forward, but the final shortlist was restricted to local residents.

He demanded a review of the process, writing of his dismay with a party that "was not interested in the diversity and experience I would bring as a gay Jewish renter" and suggesting that "threatening private tweets from senior members of the party to donors" had torpedoed his candidacy.

Rally crosser
Colleagues from the time suggested that Polanski was seen as a self-publicist. He had made a scene at a Labour rally in June 2016, leading to the BuzzFeed headline: "The man who heckled Jeremy Corbyn is actually a Lib Dem candidate."

After the snub, Polanski vented his frustration online across blogs, comment sections and message boards. In not shortlisting him, he wrote: "The party has let me, and all of us down."

One SLF colleague, who spoke to Polanski during the Richmond Park kerfuffle, was bemused: "He was thinking aloud about how all the other parties would love to have someone like him, and he went through them one by one, and why he didn't want to join any of them. That stayed with me, because a few months later, up he pops having joined the Greens."

It was a good decision. On 2 September, Polanski, a London Assembly member since 2021, won the Green leadership in England and Wales by a landslide, beating two of the party MPs. He told Keir Starmer's Labour: "We are here to replace you."

A catchy phrase: wonder how it would sound performed by a gospel choir?

More top stories in the latest issue:

SILENT WITNESS
Number 10's new head of policy, Amy Richards, could be the poster child for Labour's "change" agenda, given her drift away from defending human rights.

REED ALL ABOUT HIM
"Build, baby, build" is the mantra of new housing secretary Steve Reed after the reshuffle that followed Angela Rayner's resignation – and small wonder.

CALLED TO ORDURE
MPs investigating the Office for National Statistics spoke to former national statistician Prof Sir Ian Diamond, who came across as endearingly dotty.

MOTHER'S PRIDE
A parliamentary aide has been promoted to executive office manager to his mother, Labour MP Kate Osamor – while launching his own fashion brand.

CAPITAL GAIN
Reform UK has accepted a £100,000 donation from a private equity outfit whose main claim to fame was driving British Steel into liquidation in 2019.

ENERGY BOOST
The energy industry is prominent among lobbyists preparing for Labour's party conference, keen to exploit the appetite for "green" energy generation.

BRUSSELS SPROUTS
The European Commission's State of the Union speech is meant to be a call to arms for EU integration, but this year's message was very different.