Zack Polanski calls two-party politics dead after mayoral and council wins

Zack Polanski has declared Britain’s two-party politics “dead and buried” as his Green party won its first ever mayoral election and gained councillors across England**,** including winning three councils outright.

As Labour losses piled up across the country and the Conservatives endured another disappointing set of results, Polanski sought to present his party as emerging from the results as the most viable option for opponents of Reform.

“It is very clear that the new politics is the Green party versus Reform,” he said.

Speaking at the Hackney count centre in London where the party won its first ever elected mayor, he added: “I said that the Green party were going to replace Labour. That’s exactly what we did in Gorton and Denton, it’s what we’ve done in Hackney, and we’re seeing that right across the country.

“In fact, in almost all of our seats, right across the country, whether they’re target or non-target, the Green party vote share is rising.”

With 258 council seats declared by early evening, the party was celebrating 184 new council seats, along with seats in the Scottish and Welsh parliaments for the first time.
Prof Tony Travers, a local government expert at the London School of Economics, said that the Greens’ failure to make more of an imprint in London reflected the capital’s unique status in England, with results appearing favouring the more traditional parties. “The Greens haven’t done perhaps as well as they were expecting, with the sense of that momentum that was gathering around the party in the capital seeming to be fizzling out slightly.”

In a blow to Keir Starmer, the Greens unseated Labour from mayoral power in the east London borough of Hackney after 24 years. The new mayor, Zoë Garbett, told reporters she was “elated” and promised it was just the beginning, after the party won with 35,720 votes to Labour’s 26,865.

Her party colleague Liam Shrivastava was elected the new mayor of Lewisham hours later.

“Across London and the country, people have made it clear that they are desperate for an alternative to this failing Labour government,” Garbett said. “It’s not old politics … versus new parties. This is about a system of fear versus a movement of hope,” she said.

The Greens also won overall majorities in Norwich and Hastings from no overall control, and taking Waltham Forest from Labour, the party’s first council in London.

In Hastings, the party gained 10 additional seats, while Labour lost all nine of its councillors. The council leader, Glenn Haffenden, said the results were “beyond our wildest dreams”.

“We took over Hastings council two years ago when it was in severe financial problems,” he said. “This latest budget we’ve passed, we’ve managed to have a surplus of money to actually spend back into Hastings. That has been a huge reason as to why people are voting Green.”