UK political class ‘poisoned by wealth’, says Zack Polanski as he sets out plan to tax assets of richest 1% – UK politics live

Polanski ends with a story about a visit to a bakery that employs ex-offenders.

I want to end on a tiny moment, a small gesture but it’s something that’s really stuck with me in this month. I went to visit the Dusty Knuckle near where I live in Hackney.

It’s a bakery that employs people who have just come out of prison. Mentors go to visit people just before they leave and smooth over a transition process to a fresh start in life. It was an amazing visit where I was humbled to spend time talking to so many different people each with their own different story.

The one that struck me though was a man who said it was his first day out of prison. He arrived - terrified of this new life. He was a little late because it had been years since he’d used public transport and there was a cup of tea waiting for him. Someone knowing he was going to be late - had made the time to make a stranger a cup of tea. A simple act of kindness from one stranger to another.

That’s what this country is when it’s at it’s best. And that matters today of all days. It’s thoughtful, it’s considerate and it’s kind.

This May is huge - hateful, divisive politics is on the ballot paper. We can and must reject that.

Let’s instead look after each other. The Green party’s moment is now. Let’s go.

And that’s it.

Polanski turns to the climate.

He says he is often asked if the Green party is an environmental movement or a social justice movement.

As if you can’t speak up for our working class or LGBT+ communities at the same time as challenging fossil fuel companies. Let’s clear this up. You can’t be an effective environmentalist without talking about the deep inequality in our society.

The climate crisis is also the cost of living crisis and will hit the poorest communities hardest. Food inflation is made worse by climate breakdown.

We live in one of the most nature depleted countries in the world - and we have just had the hottest summer on record.

Labour made a pledge for £28bn on Green investment before the election. They ditched it before they even got a sniff of power.

Polanski turns to Gaza, and he condemns the motives behind Keir Starmer recognising the state of Palestine.

When mass slaughter is happening In Palestine. We will not be silent. When governments try to silence dissent. We will not be silent.

And when Keir Starmer - in one of the most deeply cynical and morbid acts I’ve seen in my lifetime - decides to recognise a palestinian state at the same moment that his government is an active participant in the murdering of the Palestinians, then we must never be silent.

Let it be heard across our country but a call that is now echoing around the world.

We must stop selling arms to Israel.

We must stop sharing intelligence.

We must do everything we can to stop the genocide.

Polanski says the Green party would stop the boats by setting up safe and legal routes for asylum seekers. Referring to a conversation in Clacton, he says:

We talked a little. We found common ground on some things - and other things there’s still clearly work to do. I told him how the Green Party wanted to stop the small boats too. But we want to stop them through safe and legal routes.

Polanski turns to Labour.

The prime minister might call this an Island of strangers. When Farage says jump, Labour might say ‘how high’.

But the Greens won’t dance to the tune of a Trump-loving, tax-avoiding, science-denying, NHS-dismantling corporate stooge.

He is referring to Nigel Farage, of course. This gets the longest and loudest applause of the speech so far.

Polanski tells members to stay on their feet, because they will want to applaud his next line.

We will say it loud, and we will say it clear, migrants and refugees are “welcome here”.

Polanski is now setting out the case for a wealth tax.

Keir Starmer said in his speech don’t believe those who say a wealth tax is the answer to everything.

I’m not sure who he’s listening to but I’m not aware anyone has ever said that.

What we’ve repeatedly said is that if you’re in hoc to vested interests and protecting the wealth of the super rich - you can’t change anything meaningfully.

Polanski says the Green’s would tax the assets of the wealthiest 1% to reduce inequality.

Polanski says on his first full day as leader he went to Clacton – not a phrase you hear often from the constituency’s MP (Nigel Farage), he jokes.

He says people there felt neglected. They need bold policies.

We’re here to turn our country around.

At every opportunity, from the doorstep to the TV Studio, our message is that the Green Party will bring down your bills, cut the cost of living and protect our NHS.

Polanski says the country’s problems pre-date Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves.

These issues are rooted in an economic model built on austerity and privatisation.

But this party is clear.

We will break the shackles of poverty and hardship that lock so many in.

We will end rip off Britain.

And we will make sure that the very wealthiest pay more tax.

Polanski says more than 22,000 people have joined the party in recent months. It is now mounting its most exciting campaign ever.

When he became leader, a journalist asked him why he was so sick. He did feel that way. So he “did that unique thing the Green party does – tell the truth”.

He was thinking of the enormity of the task ahead.

A failing government. A country where millions and millions of people are struggling to afford the basics.

The far right on the march …

Now you’ll be pleased to know the sickness quickly passed.

This is a country with so much going for it, but we have been failed time and time again by a political class poisoned by extreme wealth.

And you can see that poison everyday.

Rough sleeping up 164% since 2010.

Where half of renters are just one pay cheque away from losing their home.

Water companies pump sewage into the water and charge us extra for the privilege.

A country where we’re all paying the cost of the selling off of our shared assets. £250 more each household each year as a privatisation premium.

A country where a tiny few have taken our power and wealth.

Things must change.

Zack Polanski’s speech to the Green party conference is starting soon.

There is a live feed here.

Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, has published an article in the Daily Telegraph today about the synagogue attack in Manchester. Conservatives like Jenrick have been arguing for two years now that the regular pro-Palestine marches have contributed to growing antisemitism in the UK and he has restated that case (also made powerfully today by the chief rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis), in his Telegraph article.

But there is a new twist. Jenrick, whose politics are becoming increasingly populist, blames a “cowardly elite class” for allowing this to happen. He says:

For years radicalisation has gone unchallenged. It has been allowed to grow and grow by a pathetically weak and cowardly elite class. The capitulation of so many of our institutions to antisemitism have made Jewish Brits feel like second class citizens.

Our universities have allowed antisemitism to fester. We have seen Jewish students have swastikas on their doors; universities stand by antisemitic professors. The violent chant to “Globalise the intifada” has been made fashionable by left-wing students who consider antisemitism to be the one acceptable form of racism …

At times our justice system has barely given antisemitism a slap on the wrist. When people paraded through Whitehall with images glorifying the Hamas paragliders, they were let off with a conditional discharge. Tam Ikram, deputy chief magistrate and a judicial appointments commissioner, turned a blind eye and said that he “did not find that they were seeking to show any support for Hamas”.

The Conservatives, of course, were in power for 14 years until last summer, and Jenrick himself spent several years in government, including two years in cabinet.

Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, has said he thinks all drugs should be legalised.

He made the comment in an interview with Charlotte Wright, political editor of BBC South East, in which he said he agreed with a Green councillor in Kent who has advocated full legalistion (which is Green party policy).

Polanski said drugs should be treated as a public health problem because “the war on drugs has absolutely failed”. Asked about the implications for taxpayers, he told BBC South East:

Well, I think voters are having to pay right now for a crime that happens, for the fact that people are in the illegal drug markets, for gangs that we see across county lines.

All of this is a failure of the fact that, again, for far too long, prime ministers have stuck their heads in their sand and said, if we just make drugs illegal, everything’s going to be okay.

And while we are on the subject of Zacks, another one, the former environment minister Zac Goldsmith, has joined those Tories criticised Kemi Badenoch’s decision to get rid of the Climate Change Act. In a statment to Politico’s London Playbook, he said the move was “not a mark of an even halfway serious political party”. But Goldsmith also told Politico that it did not matter much because his party was “unlikely” to be in power soon.

In his FT interview Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, also dismissed speculation that Kemi Badenoch will be replaced as Tory leader within the next year. Many of her colleagues think she will face a successful leadership challenge, most probably after poor results in the Senedd, Scottish parliament and English local elections next May.

Stride said that he thought Badenoch was similar to Margaret Thatcher, who was widely criticised when she became opposition leader in 1975 but who over time developed into an effective leader. He said:

We had all this with Margaret Thatcher back in the 1970s. Her voice wasn’t right, her hair wasn’t right, her dress wasn’t right, she wasn’t very good at prime minister’s questions. It took her some time to work her way into being the finished, formidable politician she was.

Commenting on the prospect of Badenoch being replaced next year, Stride said:

She is incredibly resilient, as cool as they come. She goes away, thinks about it and comes to a decision. I’m very confident Kemi will be fine. But it’s going to be bumpy — it’s going to be difficult.

Last month Kemi Badenoch claimed there was a risk of the UK needing an IMF bailout because of the state of the public finances. In an interview with Newsnight, she said:

Labour does not have any plan for growth. They thought that as soon as they got into power, things would just work because they’re Labour and they believe in their own righteousness. That is not working - they need to get a plan to grow our economy, otherwise we will end up going to the IMF cap in hand.

Asked to justify this claim, she replied:

A lot of the indicators are pointing in that direction. Many very well respected commentators and economists are saying this.

That seemed to be a reference to a Telegraph story published a couple of weeks earlier.

Today the Financial Times has published an interview with Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, ahead of the Tory conference that starts on Sunday, and Stride took a rather different tone. Commenting on the likelihood of an IMF bailout, he said:

I think that’s very unlikely. That’s not to say we couldn’t be heading for some kind of bond crisis with runaway yields.

In his interview Stride said he would use the Tory conference to propose cutting the number of people working in the civil service from 517,000 to 384,000 – the level it was before Brexit and before Covid.

He also claimed: “Fiscal responsibility lies at the heart of today’s Conservative party.”

And he said the Tories were a party “with business in our DNA” (even though yesterday the CBI strongly crticised Badenoch’s latest policy announcement, getting rid of the Climate Change Act).

Speaking to Sky News, Zack Polanski also said Britain needed a conversation about patriotism that goes beyond “waving flags”. He said this would involve “complicated conversations”, not “angry words”.

This country right now is having a conversation about patriotism, and I think that probably needs to be a deeper conversation than just waving flags.

I think it has to be about why do some people not feel like they belong here? Why do they feel unwelcome? And how can we make sure that everyone feels love for their community and loved from their community?

Those are complex things, particularly when there are tensions in our communities.

But we know, when we get this right, this is what’s part of what makes Britain great.

Migration, multiculturalism, is all really [an] important part of being British. It also requires work, and I think far too often the work is not done. Instead, there’s just been angry words. Angry words are not going to get us anywhere. We need unity. We need complicated conversations, and we need to bring people together rather than divide.

Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, said this morning that the pro-Palestine marches that took place last night, in London and in Manchester, should have been cancelled in the light of the synogogue attack. She said they were “dishonourable”, and disrepectful to the Jewish community that was grieving.

The campaigners were protesting against Israel’s interception of an aid flotilla heading for Gaza, and they wanted the UK government to condemn Israel’s action.

In his Sky News interview, asked if he agreed with Mahmood, Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, said he thought she was being “deeply irresponsible” too, like Kemi Badenoch. (See 10.15am.)

I think ultimately conflating protests against a genocide in Gaza, and ultimately weaponising that against an antisemitic attack on our streets, a terrorist attack, is deeply irresponsible.

Democratic, non-violent protest is a cornerstone of our democracy, and I think it’s worrying when government are increasingly trying to crush down dissent. And using what is a brutal attack … to point at a protest and say people don’t have a right to also speak out against a genocide is conflating issues, is incoherent, and it’s exactly the opposite of what we need from politicians.

We need statesmanship in this moment, we need responsibility, we need people to be sensitive about that language, but also recognise that there is complexity to this, and it can’t just be about finger pointing at people who are very worried about a genocide.

Zack Polanski has set out some of the arguments he will be using in his Green party conference speech later in an article for the Guardian. In it, he defends immigration, saying it has been the UK’s “superpower”.

Here is an extract.

Labour is capitulating to the anti-migrant talking points of Reform, all while talking the language of decency and fairness. It makes my toes curl.

But I am here to do what others won’t. To tell the truth about what makes our country great and what makes it not so great. While others thrive on creating scapegoats, I am here to tell you a different story.

The tapestry of cultural life in Britain is what makes our nation strong. From the doctors, nurses and carers who staff our NHS and who look after our elderly people, to the entrepreneurs, artists and teachers who enrich our culture and economy. Migration is our DNA as a country, it is our superpower …

The truth is simple: Britain is not broken because of migration. Britain is broken because of inequality. Because of an economy that allows billionaires to hoard wealth while millions struggle to get by. Because of a political class that has lost its nerve and forgotten its purpose.

And here is the full article.

Related: Migration is Britain’s superpower. Our future depends on embracing that truth, not denying it | Zack Polanski

Yesterday Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, argued that rising antisemitism was linked to the language used by some pro-Palestinian campaigners since the 7 October Hamas attack that started the Israel-Gaza war. She said:

I think the calls to globalise the intifada have been disgraceful. We’ve seen people using those words on placards around Westminster. That’s what globalising the intifada looks like. It means killing Jewish people. And I think there’s been far too much tolerance of a lot of rhetoric at many levels.

In an interview with Sky News this morning, Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, said that he did not agree and that he thought Badenoch was being “deeply irresponsible”. He explained:

We need to not conflate the Jewish community and the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and actually putting those two things together, I say, personally as a Jewish person, makes me feel more at risk.

I think you can both be absolutely clear that antisemitism and Islamophobia in our country is totally unacceptable, and you stand against the ongoing genocide, and our government’s complicity – in fact, active enabling – by sellling arms to Israel. Those are two different issues.

In an interview on the Today programme, Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, was asked at length about anti-Israel comments by the co-deputy leader, Mothin Ali, and other Green members. Polanski said some of the comments referenced were “totally unacceptable”, but he also said it was important to understand the context, and he said Ali deserved credit for apologising.

Justin Webb, the presenter, said that after 7 October Ali described Israelis as colonialists and defended the right of indigenous people to fight back. Ali apologised. But Ali had also targeted a Leeds-based rabbi who went to Israel after 7 October to serve as a reservist in the IDF, Webb said. He asked if Ali was the right person to be deputy leader of a political party.

Polanski said that Ali had apologised. Asked if that was enough, he went on:

Well, I want to be clear that I’m a Jewish person, and I feel this genocide incredibly deeply.

As a Muslim man, I can only imagine what it feels like to know that every single day in Palestine the equivalent of a classroom of children are dying.

Asked if that excused those views, Polanski replied:

It doesn’t excuse it, but I think it’s contextual. This rabbi went off to fight for the IDF … I absolutely defend [Ali’s] right to be annoyed and upset about what is happening.

Webb said the rabbi had to move out of his home. He asked Polanski if the “context” explained that. Polanski replied:

I think there is a context to this. I think if someone goes to fight with an army who’s committing a genocide, that there are consequences.

Now I don’t stand by what Mothin said, and neither does he. But ultimately, I do think we need to have a context on this.

Webb then asked about a Green councillor in Bristol reprimanded for sharing a Hamas video on social media. In the video Israel was described as an “animal state”.

Polanski said that he did not know about this case, but he said that as a Jewish man he was very upset about what was happening in Palestine.

Webb said the Green party had members who suggested it was not legitimate to be a Jew, and that Israel was not legitimate.

Polanski said he did not think anyone had said that, and that Webb should be asking about Israel committing genocide.

Webb then a lot of people were arguing that views like this, saying Israel is an animal state, were simply unacceptable, and people saying them should not be allowed to take part in civilised society. He suggested Polanski did not agree.

Polanski said that Webb was “conflating” various issues, but that those words were “totally unacceptable”.

Webb again said parties should take responsibility. Polanski said apologising was taking responsibility. He said Ali was a Muslim, and Islamophobia is on the rise, he said. And he said Ali issued a statement yesterday about the synagogue attack that he found very moving.

Good morning. The Green party starts its conference today, with its membership up to a record high (over 80,000) following the election of “eco-populist” Zack Polanski as leader. But the Greens struggle for coverage at the best of times, and these aren’t the best of times. The news today will be dominated by the repurcussions from the Manchester synagogue attack.

We are covering the synagogue terror attack on a separate live blog and that will be the place to go to updates.

Related: Manchester synagogue victims named as home secretary says attacker was not known to police – latest

The attack has triggered a fierce political debate about the causes of rising antisemitism, and I will be picking up on some of that here. But the events in Manchester are subject to an ongoing police investigation and, if we do open comments, we won’t be allowing comments relating directly to them BTL. If readers don’t comply with at, comments will get closed.

According to extracts of his speech released in advance, Polanski is going to accuse Labour of playing “handmaidens” to the the “dangerous, deceitful politics” of Reform UK. He will say:

When Farage says jump, Labour asks ‘how high’. But the Greens won’t dance to the tune of a Trump-loving, NHS-dismantling corporate stooge. Let’s say it loud and clear: migrants and refugees are not the problem; they are part of what makes Britain great. The real threat to our high streets, to our homes, to our NHS, comes from decades of austerity, privatisation and an economic system that rigs the rules for billionaires.

Polanski will also restate his party’s commitment to invest more in public services with the proceeds of a wealth tax.

At every opportunity, our message will be clear: the Green party will bring down your bills, cut the cost of living and protect our NHS … We will tax the wealthiest, end rip-off Britain, and invest in public services that work for everyone …

If Reform can rocket through the polls with a politics of despair, then it’s time for the Green party to do the same thing with a politics of hope.

According to the speech extracts released overnight, Polanski’s will also describe Reform UK’s politics as “hateful” and “divisive”. But in interviews this morning he has also been grilled over comments by Mothin Ali, the Green co-deputy party leader, that led to a former university rabbi having to flee his home. Polanski said Ali had apologised for those comments. I will post more details soon.

Polanski is addressing the conference at 1.30pm, and at 3.45pm Andrew Slaughter, the Green leader in Wales, is speaking.

Otherwise, there is not much in the diary today, but two events are happening in private today that are significant. The Office for Budget Responsibility is due to hand its latest economic forecasts to the Treasury, which will in effect tell her quite how much tax she will need to rise in the budget next month. And Kemi Badenoch is chairing a shadow cabinet meeting where they will discuss the plan to leave the European convention on human rights that Badenoch is due to announce on Sunday.