Zack Polanski has got Sir Keir Starmer in a booby trap after the Greens sensationally won a by-election in the Labour stronghold of Gorton and Denton. The Green Party leader once suggested he could enlarge women’s breasts with his mind.
But its his party’s membership that he has grown since taking over as leader last year and it now boasts its first MP in northern England after local plumber Hannah Spencer secured its first ever victory in a Westminster byelection.
And she declared the party “can win anywhere” after she gave Reform and Labour a kick in the ballots. Here, your Daily Star takes a look at what a Green government might look like.
Wage plans
A key Green pledge to bring in a law that would see company’s adhere to a 10:1 ratio rule, meaning the highest paid employee of any firm could not be paid more than 10 times that of its lowest. Under the plans, if the highest earner got a pay rise, so would the lowest.
The party made calls for the plan last summer after analysis found bosses of Britain’s largest listed companies are now paid 122 times the salary of the average full-time UK worker.
MP Ellie Chowns said: “The rich continue to get richer while millions struggle to meet basic household bills. Such a ratio would end obscene salaries for greedy CEOs while pulling up wages for the lowest paid in organisations.
“It would show workers the respect – and grant them the pay – they deserve.” Mr Polanski said on GMB last year: “I wanna tax multimillionaires and billionaires.
Free for all porn
The Greens back legalising prostitution and freeing up access to sexually explicit pornography, a party policy document states.
Official policy says sex work involving consenting adults ‘should be decriminalised’ and restrictions and censorship of sexually explicit material “should be ended”, which exceptions made for those protecting children.
Don’t knock it!
And brothels could become a feature of Britain’s high streets under a Greens government, which would make it legal for commercial properties to be turned into knocking shops.
The policy states: “Wherever possible particular areas should be designated where street prostitutes can work in safety without upsetting local residents and traders.”
Mr Polanski publicly backed the policy when running for party leader last year, saying decriminalisation of sex work “puts the power in the workers hands to create their own terms and conditions”.
A Green Party spokesperson said: “Rather than criminalising people for choices they make about their own bodies, we will take the industry out of the hands of criminal gangs and ensure sex workers are properly protected.”
Legal highs
One of Polanski’s most controversial policies is a pledge to legalise all drugs, including class A substances such as heroin and crack cocaine. He said previous governments’ war on drugs had “absolutely failed”.
And he previously called for a new “public health approach” to damage caused by substance abuse. He said it was his belief that making drugs illegal fuelled crime and ultimately cost the taxpayer money.
The party also plans to create a “direct partnership” between the Government and South American drug cartels to introduce a “sustainable supply” of cocaine to Britain and teach kids how to take drugs safely.
International affairs
The party has also pledged to scrap the UK’s independent nuclear deterrent and reduce spending overall on defence and increase international aid to 1% of gross national income by 2033.
At its conference in 2024, the party voted to designate Israel as an “apartheid” state and label Israeli military operations in Gaza as a “genocide” as defined under the UN Genocide Convention.
It is also in favour of rejoining the EU “as soon as the domestic political situation is favourable”. It would seek to re-enter the customs union first and restore the free movement of people.
Migration
Mr Polanksi has previously said he feels Britain is not taking in its fair share of asylum seekers. During a tip to Calais in December, he said his party would taken in a much higher number of asylum seekers and let them work from day one.
Under a Green government, he said refugees would be taken out of “cruel” temporary housing in army barracks and any resident in Britain would be given the right to vote, including migrants and asylum seekers.
Green migration policies stem from the belief the West has caused an asylum and migration crisis by contributing to rising global temperatures, and the government must “support people who are forced to move”.
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