Description
Since becoming Green Party leader in 2025, Zack Polanski has openly described himself as an eco-populist, arguing that “Britain is not broken because of migration. Britain is broken because of inequality.” His attempt to reframe “broken Britain” around inequality and the climate crisis marks one of the clearest efforts in recent British politics to reclaim populism from the right. What makes this project particularly interesting is the way Polanski performs political strength. Rather than relying on the familiar figure of the “strong man”, he projects conviction through openness and moral clarity, often speaking plainly on issues such as racism and inequality. This style captures key elements of populist authenticity while rejecting its exclusionary tendencies.
This paper uses Polanski’s leadership as a case study through which to consider whether a distinct form of left climate populism is beginning to emerge in Britain. Drawing on post-Marxist and critical approaches to populism, it asks whether eco-populism can serve as a genuinely transformative project or whether it risks reproducing the moral and institutional constraints that limited Corbynism. The paper argues that Polanski’s attempt to centre inequality within ecological politics reveals both the enduring appeal of populism’s antagonistic logic and its potential to be re-directed toward inclusion and sustainability rather than nostalgia and division.
