Government's antisemitism adviser calls for EHRC probe into Green Party over 'Zionism is racism' motion
From the Newshound archive · first published 9 October 2026.
Zack Polanski, whose net approval rating of -28 makes him less popular than Nigel Farage, faces a crunch Holborn and St Pancras by-election tomorrow.
Lord Mann, the government's independent adviser on antisemitism, has called on the Equality and Human Rights Commission to launch a formal investigation into the Green Party, accusing leader Zack Polanski of "running away" from his party's widely condemned conference vote. The Campaign Against Antisemitism has already referred the Greens to the EHRC, alleging the party discriminated against Jewish members under the Equality Act 2010. Mann charged that Polanski was "an ardent Zionist as a Lib Dem" who is now "trying to dance on the head of a pin" over a motion he failed to vote against.
Jewish Greens Chair Vivien Lichtenstein called Polanski's silence a "big mistake" and demanded his resignation following his by-election defeat in Holborn and St Pancras.
The activist who proposed the 'Zionism is racism' motion, Lubna Speitan, was named in US court documents as a "close friend" of an al-Qaeda terrorist jailed for 40 years for supporting a Heathrow bomb plot.
Halima Brewer, newly elected to the Green Party's disciplinary committee, previously wrote that she was "naïve" to oppose Hamas and shared posts denying Israel's existence.
