New Green Party leader backs Welsh independence and abolition of monarchy

Emily Price 

The new leader of the Green Party of England and Wales is backing Welsh independence and has called for the abolition of the House of Lords and the monarchy.

Zack Polanski made the comments during an interview with Abolish Westminster substack writer Adam Ramsay.

The Greens in England and Wales recently reached more than 100,000 members for the first time since the London Assembly member took over as leader last month.

The booming membership and the party’s highest ever polling has been attributed to Polanski’s apparent ability to deliver clear and sharp left-wing messaging at a time when Reform UK is dominating political conversation.

‘Disrespect’

Speaking about rising support for Welsh independence, Polanski accused both Labour and Conservative governments of “a complete resentment, a disrespect, an almost dismissive and exclusionary attitude towards the Welsh people.”

He said: “How dare any English or British politician turn to Wales and go ‘you need us, and I’m going to give you scare stories about how we’ll make sure you don’t have the resources to do that’. We should be empowering our neighbours.”

Currently, opinion polls on Welsh independence show more opposition in Wales to independence than support.

However, a poll in April revealed some of the highest levels of support for Welsh independence ever recorded, with 41% of decided voters saying they would vote for independence if a referendum were held tomorrow.

Outrage

Speaking to Abolish Westminster at the Greens’ conference in Bournemouth, Polanski said issues such as HS2 consequentials and the Barnett funding formula would “outrage” him if he were a Welshman.

He said: “How can you have a country where they have to go with a begging bowl to the Westminster government?

“Which would be bad anyway, but we had a Conservative government, and now again a Labour government, that have demonstrated time and time again a complete resentment, a disrespect, an almost dismissive and exclusionary attitude towards the Welsh people.

“I think there are other, more nuanced things, that would outrage me – do outrage me, but would particularly if I was Welsh.

“Like the Barnett formula, with HS2, where they are being affected by decisions at Westminster, but then not getting any benefit from it economically or socially or culturally.

“And you could just keep listing things, but it just feels like they have just been hit so hard by a government which just doesn’t care about them.”

‘Scare stories’

He added: “Increasingly, polling shows that there is surging, rising, increasing want for independence, and so how dare any English or British politician turn to Wales and go ‘oh you need us, and I’m going to give you scare stories about how, if you go off and do it on your own, we’ll make sure you don’t have the resources to do that’.

“We should be empowering our neighbours to be able to have everything that we want for ourselves, and that we want for them.”

Polanski’s remarks come just over six months before Wales’ Senedd elections.

Welsh Green Party leader, Anthony Slaughter, is predicted to win the new Caerdydd Penarth seat – gaining a spot in the Senedd for his party for the first time.

If this happens, the Wales Green Party and English Green Party are expected to amicably separate.

Speaking to Abolish Westminster, Polanski said: “Independence is not up to me, it’s ultimately got to be an issue for Wales Green Party.

“That being said, I personally support Welsh independence and it only makes sense to me that if Wales Green Party want to go at it alone that we maintain a really friendly relationship, we maintain informal ties, as we do with the Scottish Green Party, we all support each other as one family.

“But we support subsidiarity – power should be at the most local possible level. And that has to include a country.”

Race

Polling for the 2026 Welsh election has predicted a race between Reform UK and Plaid Cymru – with support for Welsh Labour expected to plummet and a possible wipeout on the cards for the Tories.

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has insisted his party is still talking about Welsh independence, despite previously ruling out a referendum in the first term of a Plaid-led government.

Asked how the leader of the Green Party would respond to Wales’ changing political landscape, he described his experience of how views of parties on the left can often align.

He said: “In terms of how I would respond, that would be led by Anthony Slaughter, leader of the Wales Green Party.

“If he was asking for my advice, my advice would be – I was on a panel last week with Leanne Wood, and Beth Winter, former Labour MP.

“It was very clear how much alignment there was between the three of us. There was almost nothing we disagreed on. People can work together.”

Monarchy

Asked whether he was in favour of abolition of the monarchy, Polanski said he would start with House of Lords.

He said: “There is a motion coming to conference about sortition for the House of Lords – I’m still open and curious to that conversation.

“More widely, citizens’ assemblies about what you do with the House of Lords is a conversation that I think would be really good.

“The number one thing I want people to know the Green Party cares about right now is inequality, the cost of living and lower bills.

“And I can’t think of any world where you wouldn’t want to abolish the monarchy while saying you think inequality is a problem – the monarchy is a clear symbol of the inequality that exists in our society.

“It’s not my number one priority because there’s lots of other things to do and we know the country is divided by how they feel about monarchy, but if the straight question is, ‘would I abolish the monarchy,’ yeah, absolutely.”