Green Party considered conference delay to focus on Zack Polanski’s by-election bid

The Green Party weighed up delaying its annual conference to direct resources towards securing a parliamentary seat for leader Zack Polanski, officials have confirmed.

Polanski is contesting the Holborn and St Pancras by-election, triggered by the resignation of former Labour prime minister Sir Keir Starmer in early September. A win would take the Green Party’s total number of MPs to six, following an earlier by-election victory in Gorton and Denton this year.

The vote on October 8 is widely seen as a head-to-head between Polanski and the Labour candidate, Camden Council leader Sagal Abdi-Wali.

Party figures confirmed that pulling the conference was merely "one possible option" considered during discussions.

A Green Party spokesperson said: "The party was exploring different ways of allocating our resources effectively while fighting the Holborn and St Pancras by-election.

"One possible option was to postpone our conference.

"After discussion we remain committed to running an incredibly ambitious Holborn and St Pancras by-election campaign and holding what will be our biggest ever party conference."

The two-day conference is scheduled to run from 2 October to 4 October in Brighton, where it is anticipated to be the party's largest gathering to date.

Thousands of members are expected to attend following growth in performance and membership over the last 12 months, marking just over a year since Mr Polanski assumed the leadership.

Next month’s by-election is being used as a test run for Andy Burnham to decide whether to pull the trigger on an early general election, Labour sources have told The Independent.

With Polanski now standing in the seat as a candidate, The Independent has been told Labour strategists around Mr Burnham say it will be a clear test of whether the change of leadership has killed off the rising threat to the party from the Greens.

The party is still haunted by the Green candidate Hannah Spencer beating them into third place, with Reform second, in the ultra-safe Gorton and Denton seat earlier this year.

A party source told The Independent: “Because Keir’s seat was a target and Polanski is running in it, this gives the PM a perfect opportunity to see if the Green threat has gone with a change of leader.

“We are seeing people come back [from the Greens] to Labour. Under Keir, there was no doubt that we were losing lots of supporters and party members to the Greens.”