Anna Mahtani meets the Green Party leader as he meets local activists

Green Party leader Zack Polanski front and centre of a large group of cheering people, with North Finchley arts centre Artsdepot in the background — Green Party leader Zack Polanski with Barnet Green candidates and activists outs Artsdepot – (Credit – Anna Mahtani)

Green Party leader Zack Polanski expressed confidence about his party’s local election chances in Barnet during a visit to the borough last weekend.

Polanski, who has overseen a surge in the polls and big increase in party membership since becoming leader last year, was speaking at a meeting of party members and candidates at Artsdepot in North Finchley on Saturday, 7th March.

The event was part of the Greens’ Big Day Out, which aimed to rally party members while also carrying out door-to-door campaigning and flyering.

Charli Thompson, one of the party’s local candidates for May’s local election, began the event with a positive message, drawing on Green candidate Hannah Spencer’s recent by-election victory in the Manchester seat of Gorton and Denton and the subsequent news that Green party membership had risen to over 200,000.

She said: “To me, that brings real tangible hope that with community we can create positive change together.”

Polanski responded enthusiastically to news of recent Labour polling data which warned of a Green victory across London councils – bringing Labour down to fourth place in the capital (while also predicting a Conservative win in Barnet).

He told Barnet Post: “We have candidates who are ready to campaign, and most importantly stand up for local residents” and “fight for local services” to “challenge power and wealth.”

He added: “We’ve got policies for the local area that people want: to fund our public services, to stand up against cuts, and to speak out against this failing national Labour government.”

The Post asked the Green leader how he thought the party would fare in Barnet. He said: “I’m really confident about our chances in Barnet but not complacent. We’re going to be out there, making the case and campaigning for every single vote.”

He added: “I’m confident that that’s a message that will resonate right across Barnet.”

Polanski added that he believes the Greens will bring fresh and energising ideas to the borough in order to “represent the people not profit”. That’s why he was so enthusiastic about the current candidates, especially George Ttoouli and Charli Thompson who are hoping to be elected to Woodhouse ward.

He said: “They’re people who have got into politics not because they want to be something, but because they want to do something.”

During his speech at the event, Polanski strongly denounced the US and Israeli missile strike which killed at least 165 schoolgirls in Iran, mainly between the ages of seven and 12. For council ward level to international politics, he argued that the Greens’ commitment to being member-funded means they refuse to be complicit in “corruption” or “war crimes”.

“To anyone who wants to get more involved, this is the perfect time,” he added. “We’re training people up and going door to door and having actual conversations with people, not lecturing or hectoring them but listening to what people want to change in the area.”

Talking to the Post, Polanski also revealed that this was not his first time in the Artsdepot.

He had performed there previously while working in the arts and described it as his favourite spot in the borough – both for its artistic programmes and its commitment to community.

He said: “I have such fond memories of this arts centre, so it was lovely to hold a rally there this morning.”

Even before Polanski’s visit, momentum had been building for the Greens in Barnet, with former Labour and then independent member Linda Lusingu becoming the party’s first councillor last month.

And local support is apparently surging. Woodhouse candidate, George Ttoouli, grew up in Barnet and spent most of his working life in Coventry. Soon after returning to London in 2022, he got involved with the local Greens. With Reform party membership rising, he was drawn to what he saw as the Greens’ message of hope.

He explained that the party’s big increase in membership nationally has been replicated in Barnet: “This time last year we had 220 members,” he said. “Now, we have over a thousand.”

“We are in a position we couldn’t have dreamed of a year ago, and we really are trying to make this work, not just for winning seats, but for improving communities.”

As part of the Big Day Out over 150 of those members had turned up to volunteer by knocking on doors and handing out flyers, from longtime Green Party supporters to new joiners.

Amongst them was Matt Wheeler, a 54-year-old educator who said he found the day “really enjoyable” and hoped to help get the Green candidates elected. Meanwhile, first time volunteer Rahim Mahmood, a 25-year-old software engineer, said: “It’s nice to be part of something and seeing how the Greens are growing really quickly and how everything is scaling from the ground floor.”

It’s too soon to say how big a presence (if any) the Greens will have at the town hall after May’s election but they definitely can’t be ignored.

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