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UK Green Party Gains in Polls, Drawing Increased Media Coverage of Policies and Candidates
The Green party has climbed national opinion polls in the UK, drawing intense media coverage on its policies and candidates. Tabloids highlighted plans to license dog owners and ban zoos, while revelations of controversial candidate statements emerged. Party leader Zack Polanski, who is Jewish, addressed antisemitism concerns and criticized a newspaper cartoon.
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LONDON (Substrate) — The Green party has risen up the national opinion polls in the UK, prompting a surge in media attention on its policies and personnel ahead of elections. The Sun also warned that the Greens would drop the Church of England as the UK’s established church if they win the election and stated that the Greens intend to ban horse racing.
The same paper disclosed that another Green candidate believed Britain should hand back the Falklands to Argentina.
These exposures came as the party faced allegations of antisemitism, with two Green candidates standing for Lambeth council arrested over allegedly antisemitic posts on Thursday. A Green candidate in Walsall referred to 'Jewish cockroaches' in a 2023 social media post. This week, two Jewish men were stabbed in Golders Green, an incident that heightened tensions around community safety.
Following the Golders Green stabbing, Polanski shared a social media post this week criticizing police officers for allegedly 'repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head' when he was already on the floor. On Saturday, the Greens engaged lawyers over a cartoon in The Times that portrayed their leader Zack Polanski. Polanski became leader of the Greens in September 2025.
The party won a byelection in Gorton and Denton in February. Despite the recent spotlight, the Greens have historically received limited broadcast coverage; they were referenced in 32 items by broadcasters in 2025, behind the Conservatives (375), Reform UK (213), the Liberal Democrats (116), and the Scottish National party (46), and ahead of Plaid Cymru (10), according to the enhancing impartiality project led by academics at Cardiff University.
