UK Green Party leader Zack Polanski has been praised for how he grilled Reform’s Zia Yusuf on BBC Question Time, along with making several other well-received points, which have since gone viral on social media.
Zack Polanski, who was elected leader of the England and Wales Greens in a landslide victory at the start of September after campaigning on a pro-trans, eco-populism platform, appeared on the flagship debate show on Thursday (9 October).
Broadcast from Shrewsbury in Shropshire, Polanski was on the panel alongside Reform UK’s head of policy Zia Yusuf, the recently appointed chief secretary to the Treasury James Murray, shadow secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Nigel Huddleston and Telegraph columnist Annabel Denham, with Fiona Bruce hosting as normal.
Polanski’s appearance was praised by viewers, several of which labelled him as “a breath of fresh air” and “speaking common sense” for how he succinctly discussed inequalities driven by political policies of subsequent governments.
Here are some of the key highlights from the programme:
“Immigrants haven’t caused austerity”
Question Time opened with a discussion about Conservative MP Robert Jenrick’s controversial comments that Hansworth in Birmingham is “one of the worst-integrated places” he had ever been to and that during the hour-and-half hours he spent in the area he did not see “another white face”.
Jenrick defended his comments in an interview with the BBC this week, stating: “There are numerous parts of our country now where the same story is happening, and at the extreme levels, a lack of integration leads us into a very dark place as a country.
In response to an audience member voicing his disgust at Jenrick’s comments, Polanski said he is “right to be angry” and that we “should all be angry when we had 14 years of Conservative austerity” which saw many local services cut including libraries and community centres.
“And then to say integration is a problem, how do you expect people to integrate if you if you’ve taken away their services,” Polanski said, adding “all politicians should be speaking about immigration positively”.
Taking his turn to speak on the issue, Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf said there “is a problem” with integration and “serious issues with immigration in this country”, before responding to a different audience member who challenged him not to mention the topic by claiming it is the key issue voters are concerned with.
“You can’t blame austerity on one hand, but then say it’s the immigrants. The immigrants haven’t caused austerity.”@ZackPolanski takes on Reform’s Zia Yusuf over spreading of misinformation on #BBCQT pic.twitter.com/UwKjXwa3Yq
— The Green Party (@TheGreenParty) October 9, 2025
Polanski proceeded to ask Yusuf if the topic really is the “number one problem” the country is facing because he spends “a lot of time spreading misinformation and fear”.
“Zack, with respect you just accused me of spreading misinformation. Please tell me, and the people at home, what I have said,” Yusuf questioned.
“You said the first bit which is correct: that we don’t have enough prison spaces, that we don’t have enough NHS beds and that we don’t have investment in our communities,” Polanski responded. “What immigrant has taken away those resources, as oppose to those resources being funded?
“You can’t blame austerity on one hand, but then say it’s the immigrants. The immigrants haven’t caused austerity.
“The same Thatcherite policies that you and your party support, and the Conservatives, [are] what have caused the devastation in this country.”
“When they come for one minority group, they come for all of us”
Going on to discuss the Gaza-Israel ceasefire deal and responding to an audience question asking if left leaning parties would recognise “the Don” – aka Donald Trump – “done good”, Polanski said, very bluntly, that we need to “be clear” who Trump is.
“He’s a racist misogynist and someone who thinks Gaza should be turned into a luxury Riviera. So, I don’t think for a second we should pretend he wants a ceasefire because he cares about Palestinian lives all of a sudden,” he said.
Polanski proceeded to say later on the topic: “I’m Jewish, and the reason why that’s relevant is because I’m one of five Jewish people to lead a political party in the last 100 years.
“So I take antisemitism really seriously. In the same way, I take Islamophobia really seriously.
“Because I recognise when they come for one minority group, they come for all of us.”
Zack Polanski, "Israel's ongoing genocide has resulted on average a classroom of children dying every single day in Palestine"
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) October 9, 2025
"55,000 children are malnoushed"
"So of course a ceasefire is welcome"
"But also let's be clear about who Donald Trump is, not only if he a racist… pic.twitter.com/u7WmcHjxr3
Polanski labels Reform and Yusuf “fascist”
During the debate on the ceasefire deal, Polanski was questioned about previous comments on 7 October made by a member of the Greens leadership by Huddleston and proceeded to say “kindness and compassion” is needed in politics and cited what it must be like for a Muslim man to see and hear the rhetoric about Gaza.
Yusuf called out Polanski: “I’m a Muslim man and you’re calling me a fascist.”
In response Polanski said Yusuf is fascist because he is from a far-right party. Reform UK itself strongly rejects that description, and has threatened legal action against those who describe it as “far-right.”
“Your concern about Muslims extends only as much as they agree with your political views,” Yusuf hit back.
Polanski went on to “bring the receipts”: “Nigel Farage joined forces with the Swedish democrats in the European parliament, this is a far-right Nazi group. They want to deport people not from the colour of their skin but from the places they have come from.
“Nigel Farage also called it the end of democracy because of the ways certain ethnic minorities are voting.
“These aren’t robust words […] this is racism, its fascism and we should call it out.”
Zack Polanski, "I'm Jewish, and the reason why that's relevant is because I'm one of five Jewish people to lead a political party in the last 100 years"
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) October 9, 2025
"So I take antisemitism really seriously"
"In the same way, I take Islamophobia really seriously"
"Because I recognise when… pic.twitter.com/c95YhwQhHA
Reform’s links to Russia questioned
During the show Polanski also pressed Yusuf over Reform UK’s links to Russia, after Reform MEP and former leader of the party in Wales, Nathan Gill, pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery which related to statements he made in favour of Russia in the European Parliament.
Gill was leader of Reform’s Wales party between March to May 2021 and was leader of UKIP Wales between December 2014 and September 2016 – when Nigel Farage was leader of UKIP.
However, in an interview with BBC News on 29 September Yusuf said of Gill: “I’ve never spoken to him, the first time I ever heard his name was in some news reports.”
“Now, Zia said that Nigel Farage and Reform did not know who this man was,” Polanski said, in reference to Gill.
“But Nigel Farage, including the day after Brexit happened, was pictured with four men behind him, one of them being former MEP for Reform Nathan Gill, the man that Zia says no one knows who he was.
“So were you lying or was Nigel Farage lying?”
Fiona Bruce shuts down @ZackPolanski's attempt to press @ZiaYusufUK over Reform UK's links to Putin.
— Adam Schwarz (@AdamJSchwarz) October 9, 2025
"Bribrary from Russia. Pretty serious for our national security."
"There's other things that the audience wants to talk about", Bruce responds.#BBCQT pic.twitter.com/3a90CigFsN
In response, Yusuf hit back: “I’m afraid if you want to use the word lie, let’s be clear about something. You are lying. What I said is I have never met Nathan Gill.”
He went on to add that he took over in the summer of 2024, emphasising: “I will tell you, I have never met Nathan Gill in my life.”
Polanski reiterated that Gill had been standing behind Farage in the photograph and the pair began to speak over one another before Fiona Bruce interrupted.
The host said that she appreciated “both feel really strongly about Nathan Gill” but suggested members of the audience are not particularly interested in the case and have more pressing matters to discuss, to which Polanski replied bribery from Russia is “pretty serious for our national security”.
Social media reactions to Zack Polanski’s Question Time appearance
When asked by one user to analyse the response to Polanski’s appearance, X’s own AI tool, Grok, responded that it had found “20-30 varied endorsements like ‘breath of fresh air,’ ‘on fire, gets my vote,’ and ‘impressive performance,’ from accounts with bios, histories, and organic engagement spikes timed to the broadcast. No evidence of identical low-content parroting or bot swarms; patterns match typical post-TV buzz.”
Other responses included: “So bloody glad to hear such a positive voice for change” and “think I believe in politics again. There’s been so much hate recently, we needed this.”
You can read our exclusive interview with Zack Polanski here.
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