Green Party leader Zack Polanski has released a campaign video in Bengali, days after facing mockery over appeals to voters in Urdu and French ahead of the Holborn and St Pancras by-election.
Mr Polanski, a member of the London Assembly, is seeking to become MP for the north London constituency on October 8. The seat was held by former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer until his resignation and has been a Labour stronghold since it was created in 1983.
In the short video, filmed in a restaurant and posted on Instagram, Mr Polanski says: “I’m Zack Polanski and I’m standing to be the MP for Holborn and St Pancras.”
He adds: “The Green Party has forced Labour to change some of their most unpopular policies. Vote Green on 8th October.”
The latest message could reach more residents than his previous multilingual efforts. Census figures show that 3,471 people in Holborn and St Pancras listed Bengali as their main language.
Bengali is the official language of Bangladesh. By contrast, official figures showed that 156 people in the constituency listed Urdu as their main language.
Mr Polanski was previously criticised after releasing a video in Urdu encouraging residents to vote for him. Urdu is spoken primarily in Pakistan and India, while three per cent of the constituency’s population is Indian and less than one per cent is Pakistani.
He then released a video in French, urging voters to “votez pour les verts” next month. The 2021 census recorded 2,488 people in the constituency as having French as their main language.
His Urdu appeal drew criticism from Tory local government spokesman Katie Lam, who wrote on social media: “Attempting to appeal to group-based grievances by campaigning in foreign languages is poisonous. We must ban this practice for good. Politics in our country should be conducted in the language of public life.”
Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately also told Times Radio that she was concerned about campaigning in other languages, saying politicians should campaign in the languages of the United Kingdom and that London candidates should be speaking in English.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan mocked Mr Polanski’s Urdu during Mayor’s Question Time after responding in the language to a question from him. “I thought as the member is so proficient in Urdu that I would speak in Urdu,” Lord Khan said, adding: “I was worried the question may be in Urdu. And for those Urdu speakers, I apologise if I spoke with a Russian accent.”
Mr Polanski is expected to pose the most serious electoral threat to Labour’s hold on the constituency. He is hoping to build on the Green Party’s performance in May’s local elections, when it came second behind Labour in council wards within Holborn and St Pancras.
A Green Party spokesman said: “Greens believe that democracy speaks many languages. Holborn and St Pancras reflects the diversity of London and of our country, where many people are bilingual. We choose to embrace and celebrate that, and we’re proud to reach voters in as many languages as possible.”
