He has overseen a steady polling uptick for the left-wing outfit, as borne out in POLITICO’s Poll of Polls. “There’s a definite and obvious increase,” says YouGov’s Head of European Political and Social Research Anthony Wells. “He’s already far better known than [predecessors] Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay were.”
“It’s not like the public are in love with him, but the public do … dislike him less than most of the party leaders,” Wells added.
‘We know how it feels to be looked down on’
Friday’s victory speech by Spencer, the party’s newest MP, shows how Polanski has also tried to foreground cost-of-living concerns, at the expense of the Greens’ traditional eco message.
Spencer — a borough councillor, plumber and self-described “pretty normal person” — mixed attacks on billionaires with a direct appeal to Britain’s “white working class.”
“We know how it feels to be looked down on, maybe because we didn’t do well at school, maybe because … we are shut out of places we should be in,” she said. “To people here in Gorton and Denton who feel left behind and isolated. I see you and I will fight for you.”
The Greens campaigned hard, flooding the constituency with up to 400 volunteers a day. But Spencer and Polanski have also faced claims that they have pushed a “sectarian” message in directly appealing to the seat’s Muslim vote over the war in Gaza. “We are losing our country,” said Reform’s second-placed candidate Matt Goodwin in response to Spencer’s victory Friday. “A dangerous Muslim sectarianism has emerged. We have only one general election left to save Britain.”