Green Party leader Zack Polanski has sparked a fresh political storm by declaring that Britain’s “special relationship” with Donald Trump poses a greater danger to British people than Vladimir Putin’s ongoing assault on Ukraine — a claim that has immediately drawn fierce criticism and renewed scrutiny of his foreign policy positions.
Speaking at a press conference for international journalists in London on Tuesday, Polanski was asked about his previous comparisons between Trump and Putin. Citing the US President’s recent threat that “a whole civilisation will die” in relation to Iran, he argued that Trump’s conduct had crossed a line that even Putin had not.
“As horrendous as Vladimir Putin is and as despicable as his crimes are, I’ve never seen him threaten genocide,” Polanski said. “I’ve never seen him threaten to wipe out an entire civilisation. And I’ve never seen Keir Starmer saying we have a special relationship with Vladimir Putin — as we shouldn’t — but we have with Donald Trump.” He added that the Prime Minister’s silence over Trump’s threats toward Iran and the situations in Lebanon and Gaza was “despicable,” saying: “Keir Starmer’s commitment to the so-called special relationship with Donald Trump is more of a danger to British people than what Vladimir Putin is doing in Ukraine, which is also vile and needs to stop.”
The remarks are consistent with Polanski’s broader foreign policy stance, which includes advocating for Britain’s withdrawal from NATO and the removal of American military forces from UK bases — positions that have already drawn considerable criticism from across the political spectrum. Sir Keir Starmer, who has previously jibed that Polanski is “high on drugs, soft on Putin,” has been navigating a difficult course in recent weeks, distancing the UK from America’s military campaign in the Middle East while continuing to publicly stress the importance of the transatlantic relationship.
Separately, in an interview with the New Statesman, Polanski made headlines by admitting he would have backed Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership had he not been, in his own words, “lost in propaganda.” He revealed he had privately apologised to Corbyn for a social media post from 2018 in which he had cited being “a pro-European Jew” as one of two reasons he could not vote Labour under Corbyn’s leadership. He also suggested that antisemitism allegations levelled at Corbyn during his time as Labour leader had been weaponised by political opponents, saying the claims did not “pass the smell test” given Corbyn’s record as an anti-racism campaigner.
Polanski has led the Greens since September last year and has overseen a significant rise in the party’s polling numbers. The Greens are expected to perform strongly in next month’s local elections, particularly in urban areas that have traditionally been Labour heartlands.
