The principle of a care system free at the point of need, for example, “has been in Green Party policy for some years now,” said Adrian Ramsay, MP for Waveney Valley. The party also backs “closer ties” with the EU post-Brexit and, eventually, rejoining the bloc. 

On electoral reform, the Greens are left agreeing with Labour but urging Burnham to move faster. A commission, tasked with suggesting how to shake up the electoral system before the next election, could “just be the way to kick this into the long grass,” said Natalie Bennett, a Green Party peer. “What we are saying is PR [proportional representation] now.” 

Being distinctive 

Green Party politicians are keen to talk up areas where they still offer voters something distinct from Labour. 

Polanski’s main policy announcement in his speech was a temporary “emergency brake” on private rent, which would stop rents rising above 2%, inflation, or levels of wage growth, whichever was lowest. Burnham, when mayor of Manchester, voiced support for rent controls — only for his government to rule it out this summer. 

John Curtice said those plans could help shore up the Green vote. “Polanski’s policy on rent is very, very clearly designed to appeal to precisely the kind of people that Greens have been most successful among,” he said.  

“We’re not afraid to say that there should be more regulation on landlords,” said Zoë Garbett, the Green mayor of Hackney, who won her seat from Labour in May’s local elections.