What happens if the Greens overtake Labour in the polls? All bets are off | Gaby Hinsliff

<p>They may lack Labour’s party machine, but Zack Polanski’s burgeoning popularity could have seismic consequences for British politics</p><p>When Zack Polanski won the Green leadership in September, he <a href="https://greenparty.org.uk/2025/10/03/green-party-leader-zack-polanski-speech-to-conference-2025/">made clear</a> that he was coming for Labour. At the time, his warning that “<a href="https://x.com/ZackPolanski/status/1969005514261418325">we’re here to replace you</a>” still seemed faintly presumptuous, coming from a man who hasn’t even managed to get himself elected to parliament and whose party was only barely into single digits in the polls. Even battered and beleaguered as it was by autumn, Labour was still the big beast of the left: the only one big enough, anyway, to win a majority.</p><p>Little more than a month on, pollsters <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2025/11/the-green-surge-is-about-to-break-labour">are now talking</a> about arguably the most underpriced wildcard in the 2025 pack, which is the prospect of the Greens overtaking Labour in the polls in the same way Reform overtook the Tories at the end of last year – not just in one rogue sample or outlier, but consistently enough to be credible.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/11/greens-overtake-labour-polls-zack-polanski">Continue reading...</a>