Zack Polanski’s Green party has experienced a membership boom in recent months, after the new leader was elected at the end of summer. Under the eco-populist’s rule, the party has seen its membership figures soar and its accounts are looking healthier than ever with recent reports suggesting that party has, er, too much money to know what to do with. One of the new sign-ups is no stranger to the House of Commons – as onetime Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peaceheaven Lloyd Russell-Moyle has jumped ship. How interesting…
Discussing his move, Russell-Moyle gushed:
For almost ten years I worked alongside Caroline [Lucas] as the MP next door. My old party has left behind millions of people who want hope and want to see change in their lives, their communities and the world around them. In the Greens I see a party that is offering that. In the Greens I see a party I have worked with for years and I am making the jump to join them today, I urge others to do so too.
Whether the defection will be a blessing or a curse for Polanski’s party remains to be seen. Russell-Moyle became a rather controversial figure in the Labour party – particularly over his stance on trans issues. The ex-Brighton MP had to apologise to renowned writer JK Rowling after accusing her of using her own sexual assault as ‘justification’ for her views on trans people. More than that, he ranted in the Commons that ex-Tory MP Miriam Cates had delivered ‘one of the worst, transphobic, dog-whistle speeches’ about Scotland’s gender reforms and even crossed the floor of the House to sit next to her in a somewhat intimidating manner. Former Conservative health secretary Victoria Atkins reprimanded him a year later after he complained about gender critical activists putting posters with ‘rude words’ outside his house. ‘Setting a good example starts at home,’ Atkins reminded him primly. That’s him told…
In fact his rather bizarre behaviour prompted Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour lot to deselect Russell-Moyle ahead of the 2024 general election. In May last year, he received an administrative suspension letter after an unknown person made a ‘vexatious and politically motivated complaint’ about him, and the ex-Brighton man denied the allegations against him.
It’s certainly a lot of baggage to take into the Greens. Best of luck, chaps!
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