North Herefordshire MP Ellie Chowns is the bookies’ favourite to take over as leader of Green Party, with current leader Zack Polanski seen as continuing to flounder over the party’s anti-Zionism controversy.
Mr Polanski opted not to vote on a controversial motion at his party’s conference in Brighton earlier this month, which set as party policy the position that Zionism, the belief in Israel as a homeland for Jews, was “racist”.
Shortly after he failed to take the Holborn & St Pancras by-election vote which would have enabled him to take up a seat in the Commons.
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The Zionism issue resurfaced this weekend when Mr Polanski confirmed on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg he would not try to overturn the controversial motion.
And while he would look at amending it to remove its mention of a single-state solution for Palestine, under party rules this would not be until 2028, he said.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism has meanwhile referred the Green Party to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, calling its motion “brazenly discriminatory”.
Mr Polanski has also come under fire from within his own party over the issue, with former leader Malvern-born Caroline Lucas saying Mr Polanski had been wrong to miss the vote, and warning the party was “woefully exposed” to entryism by radicals with their own agenda.
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Similarly Dr Chowns, the party’s current leader in Westminster, said she wanted to “make sure that my party isn’t vulnerable to capture by extremists and racists”.
A survey by pollsters Ipsos this month found the share of public with an unfavourable view of Mr Polanski had risen to 52 per cent, while a YouGov poll found 34 per cent of voters now think he should quit.
Bet365 is offering 9/4 odds on Dr Chowns becoming next “permanent” party leader, ahead of Gorton and Denton by-election winner Hannah Spencer on 4/1 and the party’s current joint deputy leader Mothin Ali on 5/1.
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Similarly William Hill is giving odds of 11/4 on Dr Chowns, with Ms Spencer on 3/1 and Mr Ali on 7/2.
The same bookmaker is offering odds of 10/3 on Mr Polanski quitting as party leader this year.
According to aggregator site oddschecker.com, these are the only two firms to have opened books on the topic so far.
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