Zack Polanski called on the Greens to listen to the concerns of Reform UK voters as issued a plea to supporters of Nigel Farage’s party.
Mr Polanski, who previously signalled support for former Reform voters to join the Greens, said party figures needed to understand why people were attracted to Nigel Farage’s party.
The London Assembly member was speaking at a conference organised by the left-wing campaign group Compass.
Also speaking at the event was former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, who echoed Mr Polanski’s comments.
Mr Polanski said: “I could stand here, and spend the rest of the evening talking about why Reform are bad, and I’d feel great. But there’s a really important distinction that needs to be made.
“Nigel Farage, the Reform MPs, the people who speak for them, are very different to people who might be thinking about voting for Reform. They are the exact people we need to be caring about.
“Because when we say people feel left behind, they don’t feel left behind, they have been left behind, by decades of austerity and by successive governments, by politicians who far too often speak to them like they’re stupid that’s if they’re even speaking to them at all.”
He added: “Ultimately we need to reach out with this message of inequality and point out that when multimillionaires and billionaires are taking more money than ever before, the problem is not someone who is fleeing for their lives and might be travelling by small boat.
“The problem is flying above our head by private jet.”
Zack Polanski has said he would welcome former Reform voters into the party
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Speaking to The Guardian after the event, Ms Lucas, who served as the first ever Green Party MP from 2010 to 2024, said concerns of Reform voters are “perfectly legitimate.”
She said: “We would disagree on the solutions they are reaching for, but when they have had the cost of living crisis for 20 years, and when they have had endless promises from other national governments that simply don’t deliver, you can’t be surprised that they act with a sense of desperation.
“If someone else is offering something that’s better, there is a sense that it’s worth giving it a try.”
While she added she was glad the Greens had not “thrown the kitchen sink” at the Makerfield byelection, the former Brighton Pavilion MP stopped short of suggesting Sarah Wakefield, the party’s candidate, should withdraw.
