Zack Polanski falsely claimed to be a spokesman for the British Red Cross while crowdfunding his campaign for deputy leader of the Green Party.
The left-wing populist has traded heavily on his unconventional background, having trained as an actor, handed out flyers for nightclubs and worked as a hypnotherapist before turning to politics.
But The Times has uncovered disputed claims among the past experiences listed on his former website and independent promotional pages.
They include his repeated assertion to have acted as a “spokesperson” for the British Red Cross, which he put on his site and two donation pages while running for deputy leader in 2022. The British Red Cross denied the claim, and the Green Party later said the reference was to
Polanski hosting fundraisers for the charity.
It also emerged that Polanski was not a full member of the National Council of Hypnotherapy while working as a hypnotherapist, despite making such a claim to potential clients.
Polanski, 43, has led the Green Party to record highs in the polls and a Manchester by-election win since being elected leader in September 2025. His combative statements and relaxed speaking style have led to him being labelled the left’s Nigel Farage.
But unlike Farage, who has dealt with public attention for decades, Polanski’s background is less well known and he was thrust into the spotlight only by last year’s leadership win.
Polanski told The Sunday Times that he now rented a flat with his boyfriend, but in recent years they appear to have stayed on a narrowboat at a marina in Hackney, east London, a district which is one of the Green Party’s top election targets.
Their narrowboat is on sale, for £100,000, alongside an advert explaining they were leaving their “amazing home” of three years to move into a house. The advert, stating that mooring fees were more than £750 per month, was withdrawn after inquiries from The Times.
Government guidance suggests that council tax — a tax Polanski has campaigned to replace as Green Party leader — may be payable if a boat is a person’s sole or main residence. The Green Party declined to comment, but Polanski is understood to insist that he stays there only occasionally. Boats at the marina are leisure moorings and are kept there under non-residential agreements. Owners must provide proof of a home address.
The Green Party leader is believed to pay council tax as part of his rent as a lodger in another residence.
Polanski has also previously claimed to have worked as a teacher, a counsellor and trainer in schools, universities, mental health services and prisons, including for the Ministry of Justice.
In 2020, on his personal website, he mentioned working as a spokesperson for the British Red Cross charity, adding that he was “really proud of the work we do”.
Two years later he repeated the claim while crowdfunding £400 for his campaign for Green Party deputy leader, which he won, saying: “As a spokesperson for the British Red Cross, I care deeply about ending racialised policing and have been calling for an end to the phoney war on drugs.”
The British Red Cross told The Times that Polanski “has not been a spokesperson” and said it had raised the claim with the politician’s team.
In response, the Green Party said Polanski had been a host “for several fundraisers for the British Red Cross” and had been on stage supporting their work.
While running for deputy leader in 2022, Polanski also said he had been a “spokesperson” for Make Votes Matter, the campaign for proportional representation. Make Votes Matter said that while Polanski was a spokesperson for the cause, he was not a spokesperson for the organisation. The Green Party said Polanski had been a “representative” for the group.
If Polanski’s political career continues to soar, he may have to perform in front of the prime minister — something he has already done.
As a member of the London International Gospel Choir, he performed for David Cameron, then the prime minister, as well as Prince Charles and on the live final of reality TV show
The X Factor.
One choir source alleged, however, that Polanski had acted inappropriately in 2015 by changing the words to the gospel song
Total Praise at the Liberal Democrat party conference. Polanski is claimed to have altered the word “amen” to “Lib Dem”. He was a Liberal Democrat member at the time.
One role for which Polanski was well known was his stint as a hypnotherapist, operating at the Lewis Clinic in Harley Street, central London. He appeared in a Sun newspaper feature in 2013 where he tried to enlarge the breasts of a female reporter using hypnotherapy.
Since becoming a part of the Green Party leadership, Polanski has said that he “never believed” that
women’s breasts could be enlarged by hypnotherapy and that he was never paid to try.
But Robert Lewis, founder of the Lewis Clinic, said that hypnotherapists operating at his Harley Street premises did try to enlarge the breasts of female clients. Lewis, who knew Polanski, said: “It was just one of the things that we did and people knew about it. I did several myself.” Defending the practice, Lewis added: “Actually, what you can get using the mind is one cup size up or down.”
Lewis said he previously had a client who was a pole dancer who wanted to increase the size of her bust and insisted it was possible using hypnotherapy. “It doesn’t sound rational to you because you don’t believe that the body is a machine. It’s attached to a consciousness and a brain and that influences the mechanics within reason,” Lewis told The Times.
Polanski said last year that he had been misrepresented in the Sun article, insisting he apologised in a BBC interview the day after the story came out. In fact, Polanski told the BBC in 2013 that “increasingly more and more as I work with people” there was “anecdotal evidence, at least, of growth in breast size”.
Despite this, a Green Party spokesman insisted this week: “Zack has always been clear that this was not a service he offered and that this was an idea of a Sun journalist. He has apologised repeatedly.”
Advertising his services as a hypnotherapist on his website, Polanski included the letters “MNCH” after his name, which stood for “member of the National Council of Hypnotherapy”. He told prospective customers: “I am a member of the National Council Of Hypnotherapy, and abide by their strict code of conduct and ethics of good practice and their public protection policies.”
But although he was a student member until he qualified, he was never a full member of the National Council of Hypnotherapy.
By that stage Polanski — who was born David Paulden in Salford, Greater Manchester, to Abby, who works in the entertainment industry, and Philip, a company managing director — had already changed his name.
He attended Aberystwyth University in 2003 to study acting, and was an exchange student on a theatre and film studies course at the University of Georgia (UGA) in 2004. While in the US, Polanski got a taste for the limelight, starring in film
The Gallon Challenge about a student who makes a documentary about a milk drinking contest.
George Contini, a lecturer at UGA, who remembered Polanski, said he had “represented the best of our theatre and film department’s values”. He added: “He was sincere, compassionate, inquisitive, and creative.”
Polanski’s approval rating has fallen since
his response to the Golders Green attack. It was down 14 points in the past week, according to a survey by the pollster More in Common. Having had an overall rating of minus 13 per cent, just above Farage and behind the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, and the Lib Dem leader, Sir Ed Davey, Polanski’s rating is now minus 27 per cent.
Although the fall means he is now trailing Farage, he remains well ahead of Sir Keir Starmer’s approval rating of minus 45 per cent.
Luke Tryl, executive director of More in Common, said focus groups suggested Polanski’s response to the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green last week had contributed to his fall in popularity.
Polanski shared a social media post criticising police officers for kicking the suspect while arresting him. The post was condemned by politicians from other parties
and Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police commissioner.
Polanski subsequently apologised for “sharing a tweet in haste”, adding: “Police responses to emergency situations such as these do need later reflection in the right forums, but I accept that social media is not the appropriate channel for doing so.”
Tryl said the drop in Polanski’s approval rating showed the controversy had “very definitely cut through”.
