Is Zack Polanski for the chop? Green leader under intense pressure after Holborn by-election loss and Zionism vote debacle

The post-mortem has already started.

He wil be under intense pressure over the vote.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski after he was defeated in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election

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Mr Polanski’s view on the deeply controversial motion is not fully known as he left his own conference, without taking sides, to go and join his party’s by-election campaign in north London.

It was a clear failure of leadership.

Many party members are more radical than MPs who are generally far more engaged in the day-to-day reality of politics and a number of senior Green figures voted against the motion but Mr Polanski was nowhere to be seen.

“It was a mistake not to show leadership on this, and it was a mistake not to be there to vote,” says one of the Green’s most respected figures, Caroline Lucas, its first MP who represented Brighton Pavilion for 14 years.

She slammed the motion as “dangerous” and “divisive”.

Former Leader of the Green Party Caroline Lucas

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“Let's just see what happens in the coming days and weeks,” she said.

“Obviously he has been completely taken up with this by-election.

“I want him to speak now about what's happened. I want him to show the leadership that was frankly missing.”

Labour Party candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali gives a speech on stage after winning the Holborn and St Pancras by-election

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The result shows that the Green Party is now a political force in London, especially after its success at the May local elections.

But it also reinforces the findings of recent polls that the Greens may come second in a string of constituencies in the capital, while failing to win any MPs.

So Mr Polanski’s leadership will be under the spotlight and it is not his first blunder.

He and his party soared in the polls earlier this year on the back of his style of brash, impulsive and outspoken leadership.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley

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Hitting back at the criticism, Sir Mark wrote a public letter to Mr Polanski saying he was “disappointed” by the repost, which he labelled “inaccurate” and “misinformed”.

“I’ve got a party that was 55,000, 60,000 members when I was running for leader, it’s now 220,000,” he said.

“We’re a democratic grassroots party.”

True, but the words of Ms Lucas will be ringing in his ears.

He has weeks, if not days, to show he can deliver leadership including on highly divisive issues.