The riddle of how Zack Polanski was registered to vote under TWO different names as Green leader is picked to fight for Keir Starmer's old seat

Zack Polanski yesterday blamed a ‘council c***up’ after the Daily Mail found he was registered to vote under two different names.

The Green Party leader and would-be MP had two entries on an official electoral register in 2020 and 2021 - both registered to cast a vote.

Green Party officials blamed an administrative error by Westminster Council for the anomaly and said Mr Polanski had never voted twice.

The mystery arose as the populist Green leader was yesterday chosen to challenge Labour for Sir Keir Starmer's former Commons seat. 

Mr Polanski was unveiled as his party’s candidate for the October 8 by-election in Holborn and St Pancras after local members overwhelmingly chose him.

It is the 43-year-old’s second attempt at becoming an MP. In 2019, when he unsuccessfully ran for Parliament in the seat of Cities of London and Westminster, he registered as candidate Zack Polanski. He listed his home address as a flat where he was registered to vote as David Paulden, which was his birth name. 

Confusingly this meant ‘voter David Paulden’ would have been entitled to vote for himself by casting his ballot for ‘candidate Zack Polanski’ – in reality the same person.

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Mr Polanski. The Green Party said there had been an ‘overlap in electoral records’ after he changed his name by deed poll in April 2019.

Zack Polanski in high spirits after being chosen by Green Party members to be the candidate for the Parliamentary by-election for Sir Keir Starmer's old seat 

Green party leader Zack Polanski with party members at King's Place in London after he was picked as the Green Party candidate for the Holborn and St Pancras by-election

The discrepancy appears to have lasted at least two years when Mr Polanski was registered to vote at a run-down block of flats in central London’s Fitzrovia district called Latimer House, at 40 Hanson Street.

The Daily Mail inspected the electoral registers for this address, which are not available openly but can be viewed under special conditions in the archives of the British Library.

They show that, in 2020, the names Zack Polanski and David Paulden both appeared on the electoral register. They were both registered as living at Latimer House, and each one was registered for a vote, making two votes between ‘them’, even though it was just one person.

Then in 2021, Zack Polanski stood for election to the London Assembly, winning a seat. He again listed ‘Latimer House, 40 Hanson Street’ as his home address – where he was again registered twice as two separate voters: Polanski and Paulden.

There is no suggestion he voted more than once, and the Green Party stated: ‘Zack did not vote twice and any suggestion that he may have would be deeply damaging to his reputation.’

A Greens spokesman blamed Westminster Council for the confusion. He said that after changing his name to Zack Polanski by deed poll in April 2019, he had immediately informed the council’s electoral services department. 

He later ‘became aware’ that he appeared twice on the register and again alerted the council, in March 2021. 

The spokesman said: ‘The main central point that we're trying to get across to you is it's all administrative cockups by the council, rather than any attempt by him to defraud or mislead anyone or anything like that.’

The Mail later received a five-page letter from an expensive firm of City lawyers acting on behalf of Mr Polanski repeating that at no stage had he ever voted more than once.

Westminster Council was contacted for comment.

Latimer House in central London where in 2020 and 2021 the registered voters were listed, among others, as Zack Polanski and David Paulden - who are the same person

It is not the first time Mr Polanski has been plagued by administrative errors. Earlier this year he apologised for an ‘unintentional mistake’ over not paying council tax on a houseboat in east London. 

The London Assembly member - paid almost £66,500 a year by taxpayers - was cleared after an investigation by the Greater London Authority into his living arrangements resulting from ‘financial hardship’. He pledged to immediately ‘take steps to pay any council tax’ he owed.

In May, he admitted he had not voted in the local elections, having publicly told Hackney’s Green candidate ‘you have my vote’ and his spokesman saying he had postal voted. The Greens said there had been some ‘miscommunication’ and that Mr Polanski was not registered to vote.

At a launch event for his candidacy in the by-election yesterday, Mr Polanski declared: ‘We have the momentum and we can win.’

He said: ‘I have lived and worked across Holborn and St Pancras for many years since, first in Camden Town, with many evenings doing questionable karaoke in the Black Cap pub… [then] I lived through the pandemic in Fitzrovia, two streets from the [constituency] border.’

He takes on Labour’s Sagal Abdi-Wali in a vote triggered by former prime minister Sir Keir's departure from Parliament. The seat has been held by Labour since it was created in 1983, but the Greens are confident they have a real chance of taking it.

Support for the Greens surged in his first year as leader but the party's national polling has dipped since Mr Burnham replaced Sir Keir in Downing Street.

Mr Polanski has previously said he was 'excited' by the prospect of winning the seat and entering the Commons.