By Genevieve Holl-Allen

Copyright yahoo

The leader of the Green Party has accused Sir Keir Starmer of being the “handmaiden” to Reform UK.

Zack Polanski, who was elected to the position in September, claimed Labour was engaged in “Reform-baiting policy-making” and called on party members and councillors to defect to the Greens.

He went on to call Mr Farage a “Trump-loving, tax-avoiding, science-denying, NHS-dismantling, corporate stooge”.

Mr Polanski made the comments in his first address to the Green Party’s annual conference as leader. Membership has surged by 20 per cent since his election.

Speaking to the party faithful in Bournemouth, he said: “We are under no illusion as to the threat we face in this country.

“A march in London addressed by a who’s who of the far-Right, a party leading in the polls with plans to deport our friends, our neighbours, our family members, and a government, a Labour government, who are the handmaidens of this dangerous, deceitful politics.”

Mr Polanski described the Government’s policy as “politics of managed decline”.

“It’s dressed up in this weird national renewal and draped in Reform-baiting policy-making. More of the same from Keir Starmer won’t just fail us now, it will hand this country on a plate to the forces of Nigel Farage,” he added.

The comments signal that Mr Polanski hopes to seize votes from the Labour left, highlighting the two parties’ differences on climate, Gaza and immigration.

“We’re in a moment of change, and it is our time, the Green Party’s time, to be bold, and that is why Labour councillors are defecting. It’s why Labour members are joining,” he said.

“It’s why thousands upon thousands of ex-Labour voters are now saying enough is enough, and they’re putting a cross by the Green Party for the first time because of Labour’s arrogant assumptions that it is entitled to anyone’s vote.”

The Greens leader led delegates in a chant of “we’ll say it loud, we’ll say it clear: migrants and refugees are welcome here” as he praised the contribution of immigrants to Britain.

He also said that his party also wanted to stop the boats, but by opening up legal routes for asylum seekers.

Mr Polanski claimed that the UK had been “failed by a political class poisoned by extreme wealth” as he championed a wealth tax on the country’s top 1 per cent.

The Greens are sitting at or just below 10 per cent in national polls, according to Politico’s tracker, behind Reform, Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

A Labour Party spokesman said: “It is no surprise that Zack Polanski, a man who said he wanted to learn from Nigel Farage, has done so in his speech today – using his platform to sow division and grievance.“Labour firmly chooses the path of national renewal. Only our Labour government is driving forward the change working people voted for, to renew our country, keep Britain safe and make sure people across all corners of the UK feel better off.”