Can Polanski turn the latest poll surge into Green votes?

Zack Polanski, the new-ish leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, has a problem: such has been the recent surge in his party’s membership that it is having to book bigger rooms for meetings.

- SEAN O'GRADY

The party has also just registered its highest poll rating in decades, at 17 per cent, on the verge of overtaking Labour and the Conservatives. Indeed, given the usual polling margin of error, it may already have done so. What explains this remarkable trend, and where are the Greens going?

How big is the surge?

Membership of the Greens has overtaken that of Labour and the Conservatives, and their support has risen from the 6.4 per cent recorded at the last election to the late teens in current polling.

For many years, Caroline Lucas was the Greens’ sole representative in the Commons; now, the party has four MPs and some 800 councillors. On current polling, they might win as many as 42 seats in the Commons if a general election were held tomorrow.

Is this growth unprecedented?