” The two party system is dead; it is buried” declared Green Party Leader Zack Polanski when the results of the 2026 May Local elections were finally revealed on Saturday 9th. As reported in a video clip shown on BBC ‘Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg’ on10th May, he further commented: “It is clear the new politics is the Green Party versus Reform”.
Whilst stating that the aim of his eco-populist Green Party ” was not here to be disappointed by Labour, but to replace them”, he confirmed “that’s exactly what we’ve done in Gorton and Denton; that is what we’ve done here in Hackney and we’ve seen that right across the country”.
Standing 4,509 Green candidates ( 1174 more than in 2023 ) contesting 89% of seats ( 72% in 2025), with 100% full slates in 72 council areas out of 136, standing candidates for all 6 Mayors roles and with a full slate in Wales for the Senedd election, this was a huge effort.
With 18% of the vote share – an increase of 5% from the last comparable election – hundreds of Local Party volunteers and tens of thousands of new recruits across the country delivered 534 new councillors, the taking of control of two new councils in London -Hackney and Haringey – the first green Mayor and a breakthrough in Wales with 2 new members representing Cardiff to serve on the Senedd.
With a membership of over 210000 at the start of this 2026 local election campaign, much was made by some leading members of the possibility of doubling the number of Green councillors. In spite of coming second in terms of vote overall, this has not happened. Greens came 5th in terms of seats won.
Reform UK has by far been the biggest winner in this local election with a gain of 1451 seats. Challenging them on their territory has not worked. Gorton and Denton was a fluke. Labour lost 1496 seats.
Unsurprisingly, the 2024 cohort of new Labour MPs are in shock. Scared of losing their seat at the next General Election, they are now playing the blame game.
By “Picking some fights” between now and the General Election – assuming the voting system is still First Past the Post by then – it is therefore not likely that the Greens will “replace the Labour Party”, but Reform UK will remain strong. And Nigel Farage’s enthusiastic voters could still send the largest number of MPs in Parliament and see him become the UK Prime Minister.
Right now, the stakes for all progressives couldn’t therefore be higher. Whilst more left-leaning Angela Rayner or popular Andy Burnham may make a better job than Sir Keir Starmer to stop a tsunami of anti-immigration, anti-EU and climate denial sentiment before the next General Election, they are likely to also attract back many voters who have lent their votes to the Greens.
Zack Polanski’s leftist eco- populism and his hyper social media zactivists have demonstratively grabbed much attention and attracted a huge number of new recruits.
However, with no obvious strategy behind the rabblerousing, the flurry of Local Parties and candidates’ video clips and flooding of What’s apps internal messaging – not to mention more unsavoury personal revelations – the Party is in danger of hitting a ceiling to its support. Zack’s generated surge could indeed go the way of Corbyn’s ill-fated Momentum and subsequent World Transform.
What has not quite gone according to expectations for new members in particular in terms of actual number of elected councillors is in fact self-inflicted. The problem can therefore be addressed, starting with the new Leadership Election in the Summer where Zack Polanski and his two Deputy Leaders Mothin Ali and Rachel Millward may be challenged.
For the past 3 years, The Green Light team has attempted to illuminate the incursion of the social justice/identity politics agenda within the Party and how the Green Party’s unique DNA was ditched and replaced by the 1970s pseudo Marxist ‘Critical Theory’ideology and how it has been ‘captured ‘ by the “new guard “.
It is not too late to embark on a re-discovery of what the Green Party is really about, but this will have to start with measures to check ‘entrism’ at membership level and developing a rolling programme of education from the bottom up around our ecological Philosophical Basis and Green Values.
It will also require a membership-wide debate to be conducted in Local Parties and leading to a review of all our instruments of governance, including our antiquated Constitution. The 36 strong new National Council which is made up of elected Regional representatives also ought to now urgently address the Party’s dynfunctional democratic deficit and its unsustainable legal status.
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