Zack Polanski says he would 'discourage' use of 'globalise the intifada' on marches

Zack Polanski has said he would discourage pro-Palestine protesters from using the chant "globalise the intifada" but stressed he is "not interested" in policing language.

The Green Party leader told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: "It's not a phrase I would use personally and that's because I think if there's other phrases you can use or other ways to do things then why not just do them. I want people to be more effective so I wouldn't encourage people to use it because actually I think you can make your point a lot more effectively and not get into this conversation about language.

"Words matter, but the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have been murdered, the people in Lebanon who have been killed, these people matter too, and I think if people want to protest, that it's important we defend their right to protest. Yes I do discourage, to give you a more direct answer, the use of the phrase but I'm not interested in trying to police people's language."

The Met Police commissioner Mark Rowley told BBC Breakfast earlier in the week that people using "globalise the intifada" are "likely to be arrested". "We said that before Christmas and we've already got people arrested and charged and in court for such behaviour," Rowley said.

Polanski also hit out at the Times over a caricature of him in the newspaper. The Green Party has complained to the editor, saying the cartoon depicted Polanski using the antisemitic trope of a "visibly hooked nose".

Polanski told Laura Kuenssberg: "Jewish communities aren't safe, and this isn't an abstract idea for me as a Jewish person. In fact, in the last six weeks alone two people have actually been arrested in relation to antisemitic actions towards me and just yesterday the Times newspaper published a pretty vile antisemitic caricature of me and have yet to apologise or withdraw that."

Polanski reiterated his apology for retweeting a post suggesting the police used excessive force when they arrested the suspect in the Golders Green attack last week. The Green Party leader described the attack and the footage of the arrest – which shows two officers appearing to kick the suspect on or near his head – as "traumatic" in an interview with Sky News.

"The first thing I did was recognise that this was a horrific crime and I showed solidarity to the victims and their families. I then thanked the emergency responders for the brave work they did. I found it all very traumatic, especially as a Jewish person. And I also found the video that was circulating online traumatic too. I accept though that conversation about that video needs to be had with the commissioner rather than on X," he said.

The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, said Polanski's retweeting of the post was "disgusting" and "absolutely abhorrent" as she claimed he was not "fit to lead a political party".

Amid growing speculation about potential Labour leadership challenges in the wake of the local elections, Alexander insisted that "the best person to lead our country" was still Keir Starmer.

Labour's deputy leader Lucy Powell has warned there will be "no magic bullet" to solve Labour's problems – or major challenges facing the country – as its MPs grapple with how to navigate the fallout from the local elections.

Powell told the Guardian she understood there was "huge anger and despondency" from Labour MPs in the aftermath of the Peter Mandelson vetting scandal, but said the prime minister would not make a similar mistake again.

Powell, who called for Keir Starmer to be more explicitly progressive during her deputy leadership campaign, said she would not engage in leadership speculation with the party facing a potential loss of more than 75% of the council seats it is defending, as well as losing power in Wales and failing to beat the SNP in Scotland.

The SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn told Sky News this morning that his party would view winning a majority of seats in next week's Scottish parliament election as having a mandate to demand a fresh independence referendum.

Flynn, who said the UK is "broken beyond repair" and that Scotland needs to be more empowered to make decisions for itself, told Sky News: "History is on our side in that regard so if next Thursday we break the electoral system in Scotland once again… then I would expect the people of Scotland to be given a say over their own future, as is right in any democratic society."

"You're telling me that Keir Starmer saying no means something – Keir Starmer is not going to be in office come the end of next week," Flynn said.

Organisers of pro-Palestine marches have said Keir Starmer's threat to ban some demonstrations opposing Israel's actions in the Middle East will "strike at the root of free assembly and free speech" in the UK.

John Rees, co-founder and national officer for the Stop the War coalition, which helps organise large pro-Palestine demonstrations in central London, considered Starmer's comments a "threat" against his coalition's own protests. Speaking to Sky News, Rees said a ban would "strike at the root of free assembly and free speech in this country".

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called for pro-Palestine marches to be banned altogether on Saturday afternoon, claiming "they are used as a cover for promoting violence and intimidation against Jews".