Polanski Rejects “Exclusion” as Labour MPs Refer the Greens to the EHRC
Zack Polanski has said he will not accept “any exclusion, or refusal to engage with anyone, because of the religious or communal body they are part of”, in his first comments since Sunday’s vote. More than a dozen Labour MPs have referred the Greens to the equality watchdog and nine have referred the party to Sussex Police. A longstanding member has resigned.
The arithmetic is becoming the story. The motion passed 1,022 to 813 — around 0.4% of a membership above 200,000 — with four of the five Green MPs opposed and the leader not voting at all. Ellie Chowns, who used to co-lead the party, said she was “deeply saddened” but disputed that the motion is antisemitic, while arguing that governance “urgently needs to be modernised” when fewer than one in a hundred members actually took part. Sandy Ruthven, who chairs Amnesty International UK’s charitable trust, has resigned, accusing the party of failing to confront antisemitism. The Equality and Human Rights Commission says it will “consider each complaint carefully” and has not opened an investigation. The European Green Party, which covers 47 parties, wants to “unequivocally distance” itself and will “immediately demand clarity”; the German Greens’ co-leader Felix Banaszak called the motion “intolerable and unacceptable”. Mr Polanski, who is Jewish, added that “antisemitism and criticism of the Israeli state are, and must always be, completely distinct”, and he remains barred from Israel. The timing is unforgiving: he is the Green candidate in Holborn and St Pancras, where polling is on Thursday, and he called the contest fifty-fifty last week. Watch Thursday, and whether the commission opens a formal investigation.