Former Green Party Leader Calls for Democratic Reform to Guard Against Hard-Left Influence

Former Green Party leader Adrian Ramsay has warned that the party must repair its internal democratic processes to prevent a hard-left takeover, suggesting that certain recent members would be better suited to organizations such as the Socialist Workers Party.

Ramsay, who has criticized how the party handled a conference motion declaring “Zionism is racism,” said a small number of individuals are employing divisive tactics to shape the party’s agenda.

“The party stands at a genuine crossroads,” he told the BBC. “One path is to entrench positions, but that risks importing a highly divisive style of politics—the kind we have seen from small hard-left groups that move between parties in an effort to control how they are run.”

He noted that some new members joined the Greens following the collapse of other left-wing movements, including George Galloway’s party and Jeremy Corbyn’s Your Party, bringing with them backgrounds in hard-left organizing.

“A small number of people have come from the far reaches of left-wing politics and might feel more at home in the SWP, with George Galloway, or in Your Party,” he said. “They not only advocate rigid positions on select issues, but also bring a political culture very different from our own.”

Ramsay said these members are attempting to redirect the party, and that leadership must reaffirm the Green Party’s core values and working methods—centered on consensus-building rather than factional or tribal politics, and focused on the environment.

“Defects in the party’s internal democracy allow small groups to exert disproportionate influence,” he said. “Just 0.4% of members voted for this motion, and that does not reflect the wider membership or the people I speak with. A broader membership ballot or survey is needed.”

Ramsay, MP for Waveney Valley, welcomed rising Green Party membership and said he was not calling for leader Zack Polanski to resign over the dispute.

He also stated he has no intention of leaving the party. “I’m not going anywhere. What I want is for this issue to be addressed directly,” he said.

Ramsay argued the party should reject the Zionism motion before the two-year review period permitted under party rules, and should change internal rules to give the broader membership more control over policy rather than the small numbers who attend annual conference.

A spokesperson for Greens Organise, the grassroots group that supported Polanski’s leadership, responded: “Adrian Ramsay made his case for the party’s future a year ago and lost by an 84% landslide. More than 150,000 members have joined under Zack’s leadership, helping deliver unprecedented electoral success. They deserve representatives focused on fighting for radical solutions to the crises facing our country.”

Ramsay added that the party must return to its core missions on climate, nature, and the cost-of-living crisis. “That is what will unite our members and maintain our broad appeal,” he told the BBC Newscast podcast.

When asked whether he considers Zionism racist, he said: “No. I have made my position on the motion clear, as have many other Greens.” He described the situation in Gaza as “appalling” but said the motion contradicted the Green Party’s 2024 manifesto.

“We support equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis alike, and Greens have always backed self-determination for all peoples,” he said.

Ramsay said he had told Polanski directly that he should have attended the debate and vote, despite campaigning in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election. “I believe he should have been there and should have stated his position clearly,” he said.

Ramsay said the party needs to change or rescind the motion sooner than the two-year timeline Polanski has proposed, and remove the rule preventing policy review until two years have passed.

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