The Green Party of England and Wales won four Westminster seats in 2024, the best general election result in its history. The 2024 manifesto was a technocratic system change prospectus: net zero ahead of the legal timetable, £40 billion annual public investment, wealth tax, free social care, decriminalisation, Palestinian recognition. The September 2025 leadership election of Zack Polanski converted that prospectus into a populist movement project. Membership has tripled to over 220,000. The parliamentary footprint has not grown. The gap is between the breadth of policy commitments and the shallowness of the parliamentary base to deliver them.
Under Polanski the manifesto's many revenue measures have been reframed around wealth tax as the central political choice: tax concentrated wealth or accept public service decline. The substance has not changed. The framing has gone from prospectus to argument.
On climate the manifesto's 70 per cent wind by 2030 and £40 billion annual investment was the most ambitious of any 2024 manifesto. The four MP parliamentary group pushes amendments. Labour sets the chamber argument on 2030 clean power with significant chamber time. The Greens have not contested whose version of 2030 is substantive.
On Gaza the manifesto called for immediate Palestinian recognition and end to arms sales to Israel. Labour delivered recognition on 21 September 2025. The arms embargo question remains a Green position parliament has not adopted. Under Polanski the framing has hardened from ceasefire to explicit naming of genocide in Gaza.
On welfare the manifesto pledged £15 per hour minimum wage, Universal Basic Income trial, and scrapping the two child cap. Labour scrapped the cap in November 2025. UBI remains a Green distinctive without a sustained parliamentary campaign.
On housing the manifesto pledged 150,000 new social rented homes per year and rent controls, more ambitious than any other party. The four MP group has not made housing a leading campaign. Rent controls and social housing remain Green positions without Green campaigns.
On the constitution the manifesto committed to proportional representation, voting age 16, an elected second chamber, and written constitution. The party's longest standing argument is for constitutional reform. The Polanski leadership has not made it a campaign priority. The argument has been left to Liberal Democrats and Labour backbenchers, neither of whom has made it either.
The Greens under Polanski have grown membership and narrowed focus to wealth tax, Gaza arms embargo and climate ambition as the leading frame. They have not shown how four MPs and a growing movement convert into the policy power the programme requires. What remains unclear is whether the movement first parliament second model can scale beyond a louder voice in a chamber the four MPs cannot move.
Economy & Tax
The Green Party's 2024 "Real Hope, Real Change" manifesto committed to a wealth tax of 1 per cent on individual assets over £10 million and 2 per cent on assets over £1 billion, alongside reform of capital gains tax to align with income tax rates and a bank levy. The combined personal tax package was estimated to raise between £50 billion and £70 billion per year by the end of the parliament. The manifesto framed the economy as requiring a £40 billion per year public investment programme funded by the wealth measures.
Under Zack Polanski, elected leader on 2 September 2025 with 85 per cent of the vote, the wealth tax has moved from one revenue measure among many to the central party frame. Polanski's "eco populism" links the cost of living, housing affordability and climate transition through a single political argument that the rich are not paying for the changes the country needs. Party membership has grown from roughly 70,000 in September 2025 to over 220,000 by mid 2026, a threefold increase tied to the leadership shift.
NHS & Health
The manifesto pledged £50 billion over the parliament for NHS and social care, including £20 billion of capital investment in hospital building and repair, free personal care, guaranteed NHS dentist access for everyone, and the ending of all internal market and private provider contracts in the English NHS. The programme was the most extensive NHS funding pledge of any 2024 manifesto.
Immigration & Asylum
The Green Party manifesto opposed the entirety of the hostile environment framework, pledged to scrap the Rwanda scheme, give asylum seekers the right to work three months after applying, expand safe and legal routes, and end indefinite immigration detention. The manifesto set no numerical net migration target and rejected the framing of immigration as a problem to be reduced.
Education
The manifesto pledged to scrap university tuition fees, restore maintenance grants, and provide an additional £8 billion to schools to reverse a decade of real terms cuts. The programme included ending SATs and the inspection regime in its current form, expanding mental health support in every school, and full state funding of further education colleges.
Climate & Energy
The manifesto committed to the most ambitious decarbonisation programme of any 2024 manifesto: 70 per cent of UK electricity from wind by 2030, a ban on all new fossil fuel projects including cancellation of the Rosebank licence, £40 billion per year of public investment in just transition, and a carbon tax escalator. The Greens were the only party to oppose every new oil and gas licence and to commit to no new road building.
Housing
The manifesto pledged 150,000 new social rented homes per year, rent controls in areas of high need, an end to Section 21 no fault evictions, abolition of Right to Buy, and a Right to Housing as a legal entitlement. The pitch was the most explicitly social housing led of any 2024 manifesto.
Welfare & Work
The manifesto pledged to trial Universal Basic Income at a level sufficient to abolish poverty, scrap the two child benefit cap, raise the carer's allowance, and introduce a £15 per hour minimum wage. The framing was redistribution rather than means testing: the manifesto did not accept the premise that working age welfare should be tightened.
Polanski has made redistribution the leading frame of the party's domestic offer, linking wealth tax revenue directly to public service investment in his public messaging. The two child cap scrap has since been adopted by Labour at the November 2025 Budget, removing one of the manifesto's specific differentiators while the broader redistribution argument remains distinctive.
Crime & Justice
The manifesto proposed shifting funding from policing toward mental health, youth and community services, ending the use of prison for non violent drug offences, decriminalising drug possession for personal use, and abolishing private prisons. The Greens were alone among 2024 parties in pledging substantive decarceration.
Defence & Foreign Policy
The manifesto pledged immediate recognition of the State of Palestine, an end to all arms sales to Israel, cancellation of the Trident nuclear replacement, and restoration of overseas aid to 0.7 per cent of gross national income. The Greens supported continued NATO membership while criticising NATO expansion.
Under Polanski the party has hardened its framing from "ceasefire" to explicitly naming "genocide in Gaza", and has placed enforcement of an arms embargo at the centre of its parliamentary advocacy. The arms to Israel position is now the most consistent Polanski talking point alongside the wealth tax.
Europe
The Green Party manifesto committed to immediate rebuilding of close EU ties, accession to the customs union and single market as a near term step, and EU membership as the long term objective. The position was the second most explicitly pro EU 2024 manifesto after the Liberal Democrats.
Constitution & Devolution
The manifesto committed to proportional representation by single transferable vote, voting age 16, abolition of the House of Lords and replacement with a federal elected second chamber, and a written constitution. The programme also pledged the right to a Scottish independence referendum if the Scottish Parliament called for one, and substantive devolution to English regions.