UK Green Party hemorrhaging members over anti-Israel policies

Britain’s far-left Green Party has lost nearly 20,000 members in less than 6 months after the faction’s embrace of virulently anti-Israel policies sparked an internal revolt.

By World Israel News Staff

Britain’s Green Party has lost approximately 18,000 members in less than six months, amid mounting internal opposition to its decision to declare Zionism a form of racism and endorse the replacement of Israel with a single Palestinian state.

Internal party figures obtained by Sky News show membership falling from approximately 231,000 in May to 213,000 by late October, a decline of nearly 8%. The losses are expected to reduce the party’s annual income by approximately £880,000, forcing revisions to its proposed 2027 budget.

Although the membership decline began before the controversial policy was adopted in October, senior party figures have linked the dispute to defections and growing disillusionment among longtime supporters.

“All the empirical evidence suggests it was a bad thing,” one party source told* Sky News*. “It has undeniably alienated people.”

Adrian Ramsay, the Green MP for Waveney Valley and a former party co-leader, is among those warning that the party risks abandoning its traditional environmental agenda as pro-Hamas activists gain influence.

According to* The Telegraph* and* The Times*, Ramsay is expected to raise concerns about the growing influence of hard-left activists and the party’s direction under leader Zack Polanski.

The crisis erupted after delegates at the Green Party’s annual conference in Brighton voted on October 4 to adopt a resolution defining Zionism as racism. The motion passed by 1,022 votes to 813, with fewer than 1% of the party’s members participating.

The resolution also supports the establishment of a “single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine” and calls for a Palestinian right of return, a boycott of Israel and an arms embargo.

Delegates rejected proposed amendments that would have softened the policy’s position on Palestinian statehood and explicitly protected members belonging to Jewish religious institutions identifying as Zionist.

The decision drew immediate criticism from Jewish organizations, opposition politicians and senior Greens, several of whom accused the leadership of failing to confront the issue before the vote.

Polanski, who is Jewish, did not attend the conference vote, having left Brighton to campaign in the Holborn and St Pancras parliamentary by-election, which he subsequently lost to Labour.

He has since acknowledged concerns about the resolution but refused to overturn it, arguing that party rules require it to remain in place until 2028.

“I’m not going to try to overturn it,” Polanski told the BBC in October, although he said he hoped to amend the language concerning Palestinian statehood.

Ramsay rejected the prospect of leaving the resolution unchanged for another two years, telling the BBC that the policy had become a major distraction for Green councillors across Britain.

He suggested holding a ballot of the entire membership, saying his “view is we would see a different answer.”

The dispute has also prompted criticism from former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, who accused Polanski of failing to demonstrate sufficient leadership during the conference.

Lucas described the resolution as “dangerous” and “divisive,” arguing that it imposed a single definition of Zionism despite the different meanings attached to the term.

The controversy has already led to defections among elected Green representatives.

On Thursday, Drew Creek, the mayor of Newquay and former leader of the Green group on Cornwall Council, announced that he was leaving the Greens to join Labour.

Creek said the October resolution had “crossed a line” and accused the party leadership of abandoning its previous values.

“I didn’t leave the Green Party. The party left me,” he declared.

The chair of the Jewish Greens, Vivien Lichtenstein, has also called for Polanski’s resignation, warning that the resolution could leave Jewish members vulnerable to exclusion and discrimination. Other members of the Jewish Greens have disputed her position and defended Polanski.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism has referred the controversy to Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, which has sought further information about allegations of unlawful conduct.

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