Women are walking out

Members say women have left Zack Polanski's Green Party over misogyny they believe was waved away rather than dealt with.

“Women have quit Zack Polanski's Green Party over 'extraordinary instances of misogyny', it has been claimed.”

A motion hits the agenda

The claims arrive in a motion submitted for the Greens' autumn conference next month, which turns private complaints into a public argument.

What women reported

Female councillors and officers say male colleagues pushed them out of the room, talked down to them, or turned openly hostile.

“sidelined, patronised, intimidated or treated with hostility by male colleagues”

Not just a few bad actors

The motion frames this as a structural failure, accusing the party of refusing to face misogyny built into how it operates.

“institutionalised misogyny”

Ranked below other causes

The sharpest charge is about hierarchy. Complaints about sexism, it says, get filed as a lesser grievance than other kinds of discrimination.

“downplayed, denied or treated as less serious than other forms of oppression”

The member behind it

Peter Thelwell, who stood as a Green council candidate in York, wrote the motion and is pressing members to back it.

Gathering the evidence

He is asking fellow members to send in anonymised accounts of misogyny inside the party, building a record that no single complaint could make.

A month of messages

Thelwell says the response has not been a trickle. Women have been contacting him directly, and the volume is part of his case.

“countless direct accounts”

Gone, or close to going

Those women had either already left the party or were seriously weighing it up, he says, because of what happened and how little it counted.

“extraordinary instances of misogyny that have occurred and been minimised”

Fix the complaints panel

The first demand is procedural. Misogyny allegations should carry the same weight in the party's complaints process as any other discrimination claim.

“treat misogyny allegations as seriously as other discrimination”

Write the materials

It also asks Green bosses to produce plain-language resources on patriarchy, misogyny, gendered power and intersectionality.

“produce accessible educational materials on patriarchy, misogyny, gendered power and intersectionality”

Make training mandatory

Optional learning is not the ask. The motion wants compulsory training rolled out to party staff.

“mandatory training”

A candidate goes on record

Jennifer Dee Norman-Kerr, the Green candidate in Leeds East at the 2024 general election, backed the picture with her own local party's experience.

What Leeds reported

Councillors, candidates and officers there described abusive language, intimidation, and colleagues meddling in their election campaigns.

“abusive language, intimidation and interference in election campaigns”

The cost in candidates

People quit early, pulled out of roles, and stopped putting their names forward. Fewer women and non-binary members now stand for election.

“early resignations, withdrawals from participation and fewer women and non-binary people nominating themselves for elections”

The party's first answer

A Green spokesperson pointed to process, noting that policy is made democratically and any member is free to submit a motion.

“The Green Party makes policy in a democratic way, and all members can submit motions to our conference.”

Most motions never get heard

Conference motions go through a prioritisation ballot, and the party stressed that the vast majority are never debated at all.

“These motions are subject to a prioritisation ballot. The vast majority will not be discussed.”

A source disputes the scale

An unnamed party source rejected the description outright, both for Leeds specifically and for the number of internal misogyny complaints.

“I don't recognise this as an accurate characterisation of the party”

The confidentiality shield

That source leaned on internal process, saying most members keep investigations and their outcomes private, and so does he.

“The majority of members respect the confidentiality of our internal investigations and their outcomes, as do I.”

The record the party cites

The Greens point to their own work: policies on violence against women and girls, domestic abuse funding, childcare access and reproductive rights.

“Misogyny is sadly still pervasive across society”