Exclusive: Cabinet Minister Tells Zack Polanski To Sack 'Racist' Green Candidates

A cabinet minister has called on Zack Polanski to sack “racist” Green Party candidates standing at next month’s local elections.

Housing secretary Steve Reed hit out after a string of reports highlighting comments made by a number of the party’s activists.

Hau-Yu Tam, deputy leader of the Green group on Lewisham Council, called David Lammy and Priti Patel “coconuts”.

Mark Adderley, who is standing for the Greens in Croydon, south London, appeared to blame Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the recent attack on Jewish ambulances in Golders Green.

Aziz Hakimi, a Green Party candidate for Camden Council, also shared a post on Facebook claiming that the same attack was “a false flag”.

Speaking to HuffPost UK, Reed said the Greens had become a “safe haven” for antisemites who were kicked out of the Labour Party.

He said: “The Labour Party went through and cleared out the racists and the antisemites who had brought our party to its knees and ended up with the party being referred to the Equality and Human Rights Commission for racism.

“We kicked them out and they’ve been able to walk into the Green Party with no one checking their backgrounds.

“Now, a lot of those people are not only in the Green Party, they have been selected to stand as candidates in the local elections.”

Speaking to PoliticsHome earlier this month, Polanski said the Greens were dealing with an “immense amount of people very quickly” as it chose candidates to stand at the elections.

“I won’t be surprised if we have the odd candidate where we have to distance from them,” he said.

Reed said: “Zack Polanski has said he will disown candidates who are identified as racists, so he needs to sack them.

“He has got time to take away the Green Party’s endorsement of these individuals and that is exactly what he should do, and as quickly as possible.”

The minister added: “They’ve gone into the Green Party because they left the doors open and welcomed them in.

“They tried to take over the Labour Party, we kicked them out. They’ve tried to take over the Green Party and now the Green Party is riddled from top to bottom with racists and antisemites and they need to take action to kick these people out.”

A Green Party spokesperson accused Reed of “smears” ahead of the elections on May 7.

He said: “The Greens are proud to run a positive campaign that is focussed on tackling the cost-of-living crisis.

“It is very important that a clear distinction is made between vocal criticisms of Israel and antisemitism. Some of these posts were deleted as they do not reflect the views of the Green Party which is rooted in anti-racism and fighting for a better deal for working class communities.”

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