Zack Polanski said the Greens are beating the Lib Dems – only, we think the figures are a bit off

Green Party leader Zack Polanski announced on 22 September that the Greens have overtaken the Liberal Democrats in terms of both polling and membership. The news comes after the Green Party reported a 1000-a-day membership increase during left alternative Your Party’s highly public membership feud.

This is great news as far as we’re concerned – Polanski appears to offer a genuine message of hope and left-wing politics. However, and I’d love to be corrected if I’m wrong here, it looks like Zack’s numbers are a little off on both counts.

20 days.

We have just overtaken the Lib Dems both in polling and in members.

We're just getting started.https://t.co/0qbagSvIYp https://t.co/10x0ID85aD

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) September 22, 2025

Zack Polanski: we love you, but…

Zack Polanski makes two claims here. Greens are beating Lib Dems on polling numbers, and Greens are beating Lib Dems on membership. Lets have a look at the apparent genesis of both those claims.

Green MP for Bristol Central Carla Denyer retweeted journalist Adam Ramsay’s claim about the Greens beating Lib Dems on membership numbers. However, Ramsay was using the combined membership totals for the Green Party and the Scottish Greens. The two parties disaffiliated from one another back in 1990.

He’s also comparing current Green membership numbers to last month’s Lib Dem numbers. This isn’t exactly fantastic data practice.

LANDMARK MOMENT – the Greens now have more members than the Lib Dems!*

Let's keep it going!
👇🏼👇🏾👇🏽https://t.co/mu4tFokQx6

* Comparing like with like:
This is @TheGreenParty of England and Wales + @scottishgreens vs the @LibDems which is a single party across those 3 nations https://t.co/u30civsV6z

— Carla Denyer (@carla_denyer) September 22, 2025

The Green also retweeted Election Maps UK, mocking their mistaken reporting of Westminster voting intentions. The figures showed Greens at 12% (-2), but were swiftly corrected to 12% (+2).

The problem is that 12%… still isn’t higher than the Lib Dem’s 14% (-1). Election Maps UK drew its date from YouGov polling here – which still shows the greens trailing just behind the Lib Dems as of yesterday.

(I’m really hoping that Zack, or someone on his comms team, hasn’t worked out that 12%+2=14% is bigger than 14%-1=13%. Please. That would be too silly.)

Sad news. Greens down 2%.

Better news. It's a mistake and Greens actually up 2%.

Best news. Membership is still leaping up every single day.https://t.co/0qbagSvIYp https://t.co/kYf5GXR30c

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) September 23, 2025

Now, Polanski and his team might be getting their numbers from somewhere other than Shit People Say On Twitter. I hope that’s true. But the fact that he retweeted those two figures just hours before he made his announcement definitely looks a bit off. Although he did show the Canary this:

pic.twitter.com/M1Wle007vP

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) September 23, 2025

Yet both the Spectator and Politico poll of polls do sadly not have the Greens ahead of the Lib Dems at any point:

And the thing is, the Greens under Polanski are actually doing good, leftist work.

The only current alternative

They’re genuinely willing to stand up for immigration at a moment when Starmer’s Labour are dancing to Farage’s tune, and doing a bloody terrible job of it.

They’re keeping the conversation focused on actual inequality:

Reform are trying to sell the myth that deporting people and removing the rights of migrants will solve all the country's problems. It won't.

Know what would help solve the country's problems? Taxing the super-rich properly and closing the inequality gap. pic.twitter.com/VnijxUpZdx

— The Green Party (@TheGreenParty) September 23, 2025

The willing to say what other politicians have decided is too toxic:

The truth: we need migration.

The problem: too many politicians are terrified to say it.

Why? They're led by a) toxicity of the charlatans & b) wealthy media organisations who demand these useful distractions rather than us talking about inequality.

Reject it. Draw the line.

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) September 22, 2025

They’re recognising that the cruelty of Reform’s policies is the point:

The latest proposals from Reform about getting rid of indefinite leave to remain, limiting welfare to 'UK citizens' only… they're not just extreme, they’re cruel. Retrospective punishment of people already settled here is absurd.

— Hannah (@GreenPartyHan) September 22, 2025

They’re willing to point out the hypocrisy of affirming Palestine’s statehood whilst also arming Israel whilst it commits a genocide:

In relation to the UK’s recognition of Palestine, Green Party deputy leader Zack Polanski said governments cannot credibly support statehood while arming Israel, warning recognition means nothing if genocide is enabled.

Portugal has now joined the UK, Canada, and Australia in… pic.twitter.com/xLcDhK2UGU

— PalPulse (@PulseofPal) September 22, 2025

And, of course, they’re taking the climate crisis seriously:

You can't claim to be serious about the climate crisis while expanding airports.

Heathrow’s third runway won’t help working people: it’s a gift to the ultra rich frequent flyers.@TheGreenParty will always call this out.

My piece in the Standard 👇🏼https://t.co/aCBBC8CMYe

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) August 1, 2025

The Green Party under Zack Polanski is doing actual left-wing politics in a country that hasn’t seen anything of the sort for a long while. They deserve to be beating the Lib Dems in membership figures and the polls. But, as of right now, I’m not actually sure that they are doing.

Sorry Zack mate – check your figures on that one, and then get back to doing what you’re doing.

Featured image via the Canary