A major political storm has erupted in UK politics after the immediate family of Green Party leader Zack Polanski, the only Jewish leader of a major British political party, lodged a formal complaint with the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) over persistent intrusion by reporters at their private residences.
IPSO has confirmed it received the complaint from a legal representative acting for Polanski’s close family members — his mother, father, brother, and sister. In the formal submission, the family issued a clear request that all media outlets cease in-person visits to their homes, as well as unsolicited outreach via phone and email, as they have no intention of speaking to reporters on the story. The complaint directs all future press inquiries to the Green Party’s official press office, per the family’s wishes.
In its notification to all regulated UK media outlets, IPSO explicitly reminded editors of two key clauses from the industry’s Editors’ Code: Clause 2 covering privacy and Clause 3 covering harassment. The guidance warned that continued targeting of the Polanski family could put outlets in breach of these binding industry rules.
The complaint comes in the wake of a controversial article published by the Daily Mail, written by veteran journalist Nicole Lampert. The piece claimed Polanski faced internal rebellion from his own family, who reportedly feared they would be forced to leave the UK if Polanski ever became prime minister, citing unsubstantiated claims of widespread antisemitism within the Green Party.
Lampert claimed to have interviewed three members of Polanski’s extended family for the story, and printed an anonymous quote repeating the baseless conspiracy theory that the Green Party is evolving into “the future Islamic party of Britain” with no place for Jewish residents. Polanski has pushed back hard on the story, noting that his entire immediate family refused all contact with Lampert, forcing her to seek out anonymous, unaffiliated distant relatives to fabricate the narrative.
Notably, Lampert — a former Daily Mail showbusiness editor — is already one of four reporters facing formal investigation over the newspaper’s alleged use of private investigators to obtain stories. As recently as early March, she appeared in court to deny charges related to her role in the hacking of private voicemails between actors Sadie Frost and Jude Law.
In a defiant response to the story, Polanski highlighted newly released polling data from the Verian Group that placed the Green Party in second place nationally, outperforming both the Labour and Conservative parties and trailing front-runner Reform UK by just five percentage points. He argued the unflinching attack on his family was directly tied to the Greens’ rising electoral momentum.
“This is why Daily Mail journalists are going after my family now. The right-wing propaganda machine will not work on the Green Party. We’re ready to end Rip Off Britain, end the cost of living crisis and make hope normal again,” Polanski wrote on social media.
Polanski doubled down on his criticism of Lampert and the Daily Mail, labeling the reporter’s conduct “parasitic” and reiterating the tabloid’s well-documented historical support for fascist movements in 1930s Europe. He also shared a link to an Independent investigation into Lampert’s ongoing court case, which outlines allegations the journalist hired private investigators who committed unlawful acts to acquire information for stories.
Lampert, who has stated she is also Jewish, hit back by claiming Polanski’s use of the word “parasitic” amounted to trafficking in antisemitic tropes against Jewish people. The accusation has drawn widespread pushback from political commentators, who have highlighted the obvious hypocrisy of leveling an antisemitism claim against a sitting Jewish party leader responding to tabloid intrusion of his private family life.
Many observers have drawn clear parallels between the current attack on Polanski and the coordinated campaign against former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn ahead of the 2019 UK general election, when right-wing media outlets repeatedly levied unsubstantiated antisemitism claims against Corbyn to undermine his leadership. Recent reporting in journalist Paul Holden’s new book *The Fraud* has confirmed that Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and his lobby group Labour Together planted fabricated “antisemitism crisis” stories in national media to discredit Corbyn and seize control of the Labour party.
In a public statement posted to both Instagram and X on March 28, 2026, Polanski rejected all accusations of antisemitism against himself and the Green Party, noting his status as the only Jewish leader of a major UK political party, which is currently the third largest in the country by representation.
“The Daily Mail have been & always will be my enemy – they historically supported fascists & continue to do so. I’ll take no lectures from them on Antisemitism,” Polanski wrote. The post was accompanied by a famous archival photograph of Lord Rothermere, the Daily Mail’s founding owner, meeting with Adolf Hitler in 1937. The Daily Mail remains controlled by the Rothermere family to this day, and is registered in the offshore tax haven of Bermuda.