The newly elected leader of the Green Party of England and Wales has voiced his support for Welsh independence, while also calling for the abolition of both the House of Lords and the monarchy.
Zack Polanski, who succeeded as party leader last month, made the comments during an interview with Abolish Westminster writer Adam Ramsay. His remarks come amid a surge in Green Party membership, which has recently surpassed 100,000 for the first time in the party’s history. The rise in support has been attributed to Polanski’s sharp, left-leaning message and clear communication at a time when Reform UK continues to dominate political debate.
‘Disrespect’ towards Wales
Speaking about the growing appetite for Welsh independence, Polanski accused successive Labour and Conservative governments of showing “a complete resentment, a disrespect, an almost dismissive and exclusionary attitude towards the Welsh people.”
He added: “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.”
Recent opinion polls still show that opposition to independence outweighs support, but sentiment appears to be shifting. A poll conducted in April revealed record levels of support, with 41 per cent of decided voters saying they would back independence if a referendum were held tomorrow.
Funding inequality and ‘begging bowl politics’
At the Greens’ autumn conference in Bournemouth, Polanski said issues such as the Barnett funding formula and the handling of HS2 funding would “outrage” him if he were Welsh.
He told Abolish Westminster: “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.”
He continued: “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’ and empowerment
Polanski went on to condemn the use of “scare stories” by Westminster politicians seeking to dissuade support for Welsh independence.
“Increasingly, polling shows that there is surging, rising, increasing want for independence,” he said. “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.”
His comments come just over six months before the next Senedd elections, where Welsh Green Party leader Anthony Slaughter is expected to win the new Caerdydd Penarth seat — potentially giving the party its first-ever representation in the Senedd. Should that happen, it is anticipated that the Green parties in England and Wales will formally separate, though both sides are said to favour an amicable split.
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.”
Changing political landscape
Polling ahead of the 2026 Senedd elections suggests a close race between Reform UK and Plaid Cymru, with Labour’s support projected to fall sharply and the Conservatives facing potential losses across Wales.
Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has recently reaffirmed that his party continues to support the principle of independence, despite ruling out a referendum during the first term of any Plaid-led government.
Asked how the Green Party would respond to Wales’ evolving political landscape, Polanski said collaboration among progressive parties was key. “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.”
Abolishing the monarchy
When questioned about the monarchy, Polanski said his focus would begin with reforming the House of Lords.
“There is a motion coming to conference about sortition for the House of Lords – I’m still open and curious to that conversation,” he said. “More widely, citizens’ assemblies about what you do with the House of Lords is a conversation that I think would be really good.”
He added: “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.”
