Green Party leader admits wrongly claiming British Red Cross spokesperson role

Zack Polanski has admitted he was wrong to describe himself as a British Red Cross spokesperson, a claim that now sits awkwardly beside his effort to present the Green Party as a credible, values-driven force ahead of local elections on May 7, 2026.

Speaking to the BBC on Wednesday, Polanski said, “I used the wrong word, and I accept that.” He said he had hosted fundraisers for the British Red Cross and had spoken on stage for the charity about humanitarian crises, the climate crisis and refugees, but acknowledged that the charity does not support any political party and said the wording had been taken down.

The disputed claim dates to Polanski’s 2022 campaign to become Green deputy leader. In a Crowdfunder appeal, he wrote: “As a spokesperson for the British Red Cross, I care deeply about ending racialised policing and have been calling for an end to the phoney war on drugs.” The British Red Cross has said Polanski “has not been a spokesperson” for the organisation and raised the issue with the Green Party. The archived fundraising page was also reportedly repeated on his personal website and on other donation pages, extending the reach of a statement the charity says was inaccurate.

The episode matters because Polanski is not just a candidate speaking off the cuff. He is the leader of the Green Party and a London Assembly member, and the party says he served as deputy leader from 2022 to 2025 before becoming leader in September 2025. With the Greens fielding more than 4,500 candidates in the current local elections and holding more than 800 council seats across over 170 councils in England and Wales, the party is trying to project competence as well as principle. A claim about charity credentials may sound small, but in politics it can become a shorthand for something larger: whether a leader’s biography has been carefully checked before it is put in front of voters.

That scrutiny has been sharpened by other questions around Polanski’s past, including claims about his hypnotherapy background and criticism over how he handled commentary on the Golders Green stabbing arrest. For a party that often sells itself on honesty, accountability and ethical seriousness, the correction does not entirely close the matter. It instead raises a familiar question in modern politics: whether a leader’s most compelling personal branding is backed by the discipline and judgment needed to sustain it.