Green Party Announces Zohran Mamdani-Style Cost-of-Living Policies

Green party leader Zack Polanski and his deputy, Rachel Millward, have announced a slate of policies aimed at tackling Britain’s cost-of-living crisis.

The proposed measures include rent controls, winter energy bill support, universal free school meals, and a rule that would make it illegal for the highest-paid executives to earn more than ten times what their workers do.

​The policy announcements, which come after the party moved into joint first place in a national poll for the first time ever, echo those of New York City’s socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Mamdani’s relentless focus on making life less expensive for ordinary New Yorkers is seen as a key reason for his stunning upset victory last year.

Polanski and Millward announced the policies during a visit to a community fridge in Sussex.

“The affordability crisis is something affecting nearly everyone, from the most vulnerable to people in work and comfortable, where any change in circumstance can push people over the edge into requiring a foodbank,” Polanski said in a statement ahead of the visit.  

“This crisis is totally avoidable and down to choices made by this Labour government and previous Tory governments. The Greens have a plan which would make different choices, taking on corporate power and vested interests to give ordinary people a way out of this crisis.”

Millward added: “The UK is the sixth largest economy in the world, where the 50 richest families hold more wealth than the poorest 50% of the population. Yet millions face food insecurity, food poverty and turn to food banks to prevent them going hungry. A high proportion of these are people from working households.”

Also among the policies being announced today is a joint customs union with the EU aimed at reducing costs for businesses.