Polanski tells Greens: Vote Green, watch Labour move

Zack Polanski urged Green members to back his party to force changes from Andy Burnham, arguing the Greens could move Labour in "the right direction". Polanski said: "Vote Green, and watch Labour move", in his autumn conference speech in Brighton on 2 October 2026. The address lasted half an hour, BBC reported.

Polanski delivered the speech at the Brighton Centre at 13:30 on Friday 2 October 2026. The Green Party published the full text the same day, Green Party confirmed. The Guardian billed the event live as ‘Zack Polanski calls for three-year cap on rent price increases in Green party conference speech’.

The centrepiece domestic offer was rent control. Polanski told activists in Brighton that Labour had failed to take action on housing while calling for a three-year cap to limit private-sector rent rises. He proposed an "emergency brake" on private rents that would prevent rises above the lowest of CPI inflation, wage growth or 2% for three years, BBC reported. It was framed as immediate protection for tenants, not a long-term settlement design.

Housing provided the sharpest attack line. Polanski accused Labour of failing to take on the "powerful vested interests of developers and big landlords". Labour had offered little beyond rhetoric on supply and affordability, he said. Vote Green, he argued, and Labour would shift.

On the cost of living, Polanski said Labour had offered "slogans without action" and claimed only his party would end "Rip Off Britain". He said the Greens would not "hesitate" to tax "extreme wealth" and repeated the party's call for a windfall tax. The language was aimed at Labour voters sympathetic to redistribution but unconvinced by ministerial delivery.

Polanski said sustained pressure from his party had forced Labour to change its stance on issues including climate and Israel. He said: "Through our sustained pressure – and our historic wins – we have held the worst instincts of the Labour government in check." He added that the Greens had "started to move them in the right direction" but could not wait for Labour to get there on its own.

He linked that claim to the summer heat. Polanski claimed Green pressure amid government "inaction" forced Burnham to call an emergency Cobr meeting in the summer during record-breaking hot and dry temperatures. The party had already pressed Burnham on heat resilience. On 5 August 2026 it published Polanski's call for financial support for homes to keep cool and free cool spaces in every community. On 12 August 2026 it published an article titled 'Burnham hears Polanski call for Cobra meeting: now we need concrete action'. On 20 July 2026 it had published his response stating the Greens will judge Andy Burnham on whether he provides solutions to the affordability crisis and inequality crisis.

The partisan targeting was narrow. In his half-hour conference address in Brighton, Polanski did not mention the Conservatives or Reform UK and focused attacks on Labour's record in office. Andy Burnham is Prime Minister, New Statesman reported. Burnham has steered Labour leftward, Bloomberg reported. Polanski's pitch accepted that movement as real but insufficient.

Party management formed the backdrop. Polanski requested that the Greens' ruling executive committee postpone the party's imminent annual conference, The Guardian reported. Conference went ahead in Brighton. Polanski's trajectory there is documented. The party published his Autumn Conference 2024 speech as Deputy Leader on 7 September 2024, and his 2025 leader's speech on 3 October 2025, with the 2025 page directing readers to watch on YouTube from 18:30.

Looking at what this means for Westminster operators, the logic is squeeze rather than swing. Polanski is not pitching for No 10. He is pitching for leverage over No 10. The rent brake gives canvassers a doorstep number. The wealth tax gives a funding line. The Cobra claim gives a competence contrast. Whether Labour strategists treat that as flattery or threat will shape by-election pacts, parliamentary vote arithmetic and the tone of the next Budget response.