The Green Party is debating how to be radical and popular. There is a strategy that can do both | Joe Todd

If Zack Polanski can find the right balance – think policies like price controls to manage the cost of living – then he will have found a uniting mission

The Greens are jubilant after sweeping through Labour heartlands in last week’s elections, winning Norwich, Hastings, Waltham Forest, Hackney and Lewisham, while becoming the largest party in Haringey and Lambeth too. At the same time, there are reports that Zack Polanski is “plotting” to water down the Green policy platform. That’s not quite true. As leader of an admirably democratic party, Polanski doesn’t set the policy programme, and he knows it. It’s in the hands of the members. But his comments do speak to a real debate in the Green party: how to consolidate its newfound success and extend the coalition so it can replace Labour from the left.

To put things very simply, there are two emerging positions. The maximalists, often newer members who have cut their teeth in protest politics and social movements, want to seize on the radicalism of the moment, pushing controversial policies that grab attention and move the Overton window further left. Then there are the moderates – often longstanding members and councillors, branch chairs or party staffers – who are generally supportive of the politics but worry that seeming too radical or out there will hurt the party’s chances electorally. Employing the Ming vase strategy, they want to tiptoe the Greens’ newfound popularity over the finish line.

Joe Todd is co-host of the Life of the Party podcast and writes the New Party, Old Problems Substack