'We're waiting to sweep up their votes': Three days inside the Green Party conference

When I sat down with Mothin Ali early on Sunday, he was in an energetic mood. It was the third and final day of what must have been an arduous Green Party conference for its co-deputy leader, who was dressed in his usual suit and flat cap. "It's been a fantastic year," Ali beamed. "We had 400 councillors elected in May, 1,300 councillors in all, a fifth MP in parliament and our membership has quadrupled. "It's a phenomenal record so far." The Greens surged in the polls last year after Polanski was elected leader. They gained further momentum and credibility with a by-election victory in Gorton and Denton in February and then took more votes from Labour in the May local elections than Reform did. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Polanski is at least partially responsible for Keir Starmer's downfall and Andy Burnham's premiership. On Friday evening the renowned political analyst John Curtice argued as much at a packed fringe event. The conference in the sunny seaside town of Brighton was full of energy. For many members it was the event of the year: Friends roved the conference in groups and went off to restaurants and bars in the evening. They were diverse in age and ethnicity; many wore keffiyehs and Palestine badges. But as Curtice pointed out - turning smiles into frowns - the Greens now have their work cut out for them under a new and much more popular prime minister. Polling shows support for the Greens has plummeted in the past few months. Andy Burnham has taken steps to address key grievances that led Labour voters to switch to the Greens under Starmer. So far, the most significant has been the Labour government's sanctions on Israeli settlements. It is fair to assume these sanctions were partially influenced by the Greens. Polling after the local elections showed around two-thirds of voters who abandoned Labour for the Greens cited Labour's policy on Israel and Gaza as a reason. NAZA: Israeli embassies in UK and US promote rival documentary to challenge Gaza genocide allegations Read More » Polanski, 43, is clearly keen to maintain the Green Party as a force shaping political discourse on Israel and Palestine. Two days before the conference began, he told me the British government should defy Israel's order to close the British Consulate in East Jerusalem. The deadline to close the mission is next week. "East Jerusalem is illegally occupied Palestinian territory, and Israel has no sovereignty over it," Polanski said. "Britain's recognition that the occupation is illegal means nothing if, whenever Israel attempts to exercise sovereign control over occupied Palestinian territory, our government simply complies." The Green Party leader pointed out that the "consulate is also a vital diplomatic link between Britain and Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. "If the government means what it says about the occupied Palestinian territories," he argued, "it must put that position into practice." 'A stain and a shame on this country's reputation' Polanski returned to the topic of Palestine in his conference speech to cheers and chants of "free, free Palestine." He called for the government to lift its ban on the direct action group Palestine Action, and referenced the recent Labour Party conference where dozens of protesters were arrested for expressing support for the proscribed terrorist group. "The sight of pensioners being put in handcuffs and bundled into police vans for holding up cardboard signs," Polanski said, "has been a stain and a shame on this country's reputation for far too long." The issue of Israel's genocide in Gaza and settlements in the occupied West Bank were a major theme throughout the conference, at which there were several (all well-attended) fringe events on Palestine. At an event in the main auditorium on Saturday, attendees chanted "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" and applauded a call for "the end of the state of Israel as we know it" from the South African Jewish politician and writer Andrew Feinstein. National media coverage of the conference was dominated by a motion to declare Zionism a form of racism, which members voted on and made official party policy on Sunday. 1,022 members voted for the motion while 813 voted against it. The Greens are now the first major party in the country to recognise Zionism as a form of racism - and to back a single democratic Palestinian state with equal rights for all ethnic and religious groups, rather than a two-state solution. The motion dominated internal conversation throughout the conference and proved highly contentious. 'Zionism is resulting in ethnic cleansing, in the belief that one group of people is superior to another' - Mothin Ali, Green Party co-deputy leader Ali told me hours before the vote that he was strongly in favour of the motion, unlike the Green MPs Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, who criticised it. "As defined in the motion," Ali said, "Zionism is an ethno-nationalist state. Zionism is resulting in ethnic cleansing, in the belief that one group of people is superior to another." He added: "Now I'm a committed anti-racist. I got involved in politics through the anti-racist and anti-war movement. And since then, I've got a real understanding of what racism looks like, whether it's structural, whether it's personal. "The belief that one group of people is superior to another, I just can't accept that." 'We've always led on this subject' Ali believed the motion would shift political discourse in Britain. "In 2024 the Green Party recognised the genocide that was taking place in Gaza, before any other major political party," he said. "So we've always led on this subject, we've led on the subject of human rights, regardless of where it is. We're bringing other political parties with us. We're encouraging the debate to happen in society." Before the start of the conference, it was widely reported that Jewish members of the Green Party who belong to synagogues that identified as Zionist could face internal disciplinary procedures. I met Lubna Speitan, a British Palestinian and the lead author of the motion, on Saturday. She rubbished those claims, explaining that the motion is an "E-Motion," meaning it concerned external matters and had no bearing on internal processes. "We've made explicitly clear in the motion that not all Jews are Zionist and not all Zionists are Jewish," she said. The motion was endorsed by prominent Holocaust survivor and activist Stephen Kapos, who said he believed that "Zionism both as an ideology and practice is harmful and has no legitimacy and must be rejected." But the Jewish Greens group didn't take an official stance on the motion, saying its own members were divided on the issue. Polanski, who is Jewish himself, said last month the motion needed to be amended to say "very clearly and explicitly that this motion safeguards Jewish people. "And what it means by that is if someone stands against the occupation, stands against apartheid, stands against the genocide, but happens to be a member of a synagogue that calls itself a Zionist synagogue, they should not be treated any differently within the Green Party." Ali told me on Sunday morning he agreed with this. "It's absolutely right that E-Motions don't affect internal disciplinary procedures. But if Jewish members feel like they need an additional level of reassurance, then I think they're right to ask for that. "All members should feel safe in this party. Not that the motion should make them feel unsafe, but if they want an additional level of reassurance, I welcome that." The amendment, however, was defeated in a vote by members. Polanski and Ali are clearly not entirely in tune with what a significant number of Green activists believe. Party spokespeople would not say whether Polanski would support the motion without amendments. After the vote, the five Green MPs published a joint statement saying: "We will never tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment". They avoided either welcoming or denouncing the vote, saying that "there is no conflict between supporting the rights of Palestinians and the rights of Jewish people." Israel supporters hound Green members One Green member and campaigner told me he agreed with the motion "in principle," but was unsure whether it was politically intelligent. Another member said "it won't help us on the doorsteps” to talk about ideologies and definitions. A fierce protest erupted on the narrow street outside the Green Party conference venue in Brighton on Saturday, with dozens of pro-Israel demonstrators shouting at Green Party members as they entered the conference. The protesters could be heard chanting "terrorist supporters off our streets" as others sang "there's no Palestine, there is no Palestine." Some held up signs saying: "Stand up to racist Greens," "Anti Zionism = terrorism" and "More trees less Hamas". Numerous others waved Israeli flags. A few waved a Union Jack and one man, who said he was an Indian Jew, waved a combined Israeli and Indian flag. When I politely asked him why, he accused me of being Pakistani (I am not). Eventually he explained that India and Israel are close allies in numerous ways. Supporters of Israel hurl abuse at Green Party members outside the Green Party conference in Brighton on 3 October 2026 (Imran Mulla/MEE) Another protester, a middle-aged white man, claimed the Green Party was antisemitic. He described Polanski as a "self-hating Jew," a derogatory term often used to disparage Jewish critics of the Israeli government. "I'm not a Jew, I'm a Christian," he added. "I'm a Christian. We did the Holocaust." Now, he said, Jewish people were being persecuted "by Islam". A woman who said she was French danced enthusiastically and described the Green Party as supporters of Hamas. A group of counter-protesters, most of them Green Party members, held their own demonstration nearby. The two sides were separated by police officers, and both were peaceful with neither side seriously confronting the other. Some of the counter-protestors waved Palestinian flags and chanted anti-genocide slogans, while a group could be seen holding a banner reading "Jews against Zionism". A young counter-protester named Ori, who said he was Jewish, told MEE: "We're here to support the ‘Zionism is Racism' motion. I think it will be a good thing for there to be a mainstream political party in parliament that says Zionism is racism, and that can hopefully lead to sanctions against Israel." 'Live and let live' The conference wasn't all about controversy. For his speech to members on Saturday, Ali danced onto the stage accompanied by a man playing a dhol (South Asian drum), to audience cheers. He embraced Rachel Millward, his co-deputy leader. Artificial intelligence was a prominent theme at the conference. In her speech, Millward warned that “our new oligarchical overlords would lock us into separate digital worlds flooded with AI slop and misinformation. "A 24/7 diet of distraction and lies, hyper-scale data centres that guzzle energy to make a mockery of climate progress," she said. It was a distinctly Green message: "We don't want your post-human reality. We want this world, the soil between our toes, the trees that give us shelter and shade, the food we grow with our own hands that tastes of the ground it comes from." Ali's speech also focused on youth unemployment and the party's plan to end it. But he also addressed issues of polarisation and division. "The question is whether we can build a country confident enough to live with difference, to protect everyone's equal right to belong and to make diversity work for us all," Ali said, making the argument for a "live and let live" multiculturalism. "You don't have to become your neighbour. You don't have to worship like them. You don't have to vote like them. You don't even have to agree with them. "But you do have to recognise their equal right to exist and to belong." He added: "Live and