Adrian Ramsay, who previously led the Green party, has said the party needs to repair its internal democracy so that small organised groups cannot steer its direction. Speaking to the BBC, the MP for Waveney Valley argued that a minority of newer members hold views and methods closer to other left-wing organisations than to the Greens, according to The Guardian.
His comments follow a dispute over a motion describing Zionism as racism that was passed at the party's conference. Ramsay has been openly critical of how that row has been handled.
Why it matters
The intervention puts the question of who controls the Green party at the centre of its public story at a moment of rapid growth. Ramsay acknowledged the increase in membership but warned that the party stands at what he called a real crossroads. In his view, one path involves entrenchment and a more confrontational style of politics, which he linked to small factions on the hard left that move between parties to shape how they operate.
He stressed that the Greens have traditionally worked through consensus rather than the highly divided, tribal approach he associates with those groups, and that environmental policy remains central to the party's identity.
Concerns about new members and conference rules
Ramsay said a limited number of people had joined the Greens after other left-wing projects faltered, naming George Galloway's party and Jeremy Corbyn's Your Party. He suggested some of these arrivals, possibly from the far left, would feel more comfortable in the Socialist Workers party or in those other movements. According to The Guardian, he said they pursue hardline positions on particular subjects and bring a different culture to political organising, with the aim of shifting the party's course.
He pointed to the party's internal machinery as the underlying problem, arguing that it allows small groups to wield influence beyond their size. He noted that only 0.4% of members voted for the Zionism motion and said that result does not represent the membership at large or the members he speaks with. He called for a ballot or survey of the wider membership and for rule changes that give ordinary members more say over policy, rather than leaving decisions to the relatively few who attend the annual conference.
Ramsay also said the party should withdraw the motion well before the two-year review cycle that party rules permit, and that the restriction preventing policy from being revisited for two years should itself be altered. He told the BBC he does not regard Zionism as racist, that he had already set out his view on the motion, and that the situation in Gaza is appalling. He argued the motion conflicts with the 2024 manifesto, which he said supports equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis and self-determination for all peoples.
On leadership, Ramsay said he was not asking Zack Polanski to resign over the handling of the dispute, and he confirmed he has no plans to leave the party himself. He did say he had told Polanski directly that he should have been present for the debate and vote, even though Polanski was contesting a byelection in Holborn and St Pancras at the time, and that he should have stated his position plainly.
Response from Greens Organise
Greens Organise, the grassroots group that supported Polanski's leadership, rejected Ramsay's framing. A spokesperson said Ramsay had made his case for the party's future a year earlier and lost by a landslide margin of 84%. The group said more than 150,000 members have joined under Polanski's leadership and that this growth has helped deliver electoral results the party had not seen before. It added that these members deserve representatives who concentrate on campaigning for radical answers to the country's crises.
Ramsay said the party should return its focus to climate, nature and the cost of living, which he believes would bring members together and preserve broad appeal.
What to watch is whether the leadership moves to put the motion to a wider membership vote or opens the party rulebook, and whether the two-year lock on reviewing policy is shortened.
