Green Party wants to make sure it is 'not vulnerable to extremists'

The Green Party has said it wants to make sure it is not "vulnerable to capture by extremists and racists" after members voted for a motion that claimed Zionism was racism.

The motion put forward by activists, which became formal policy after it was approved at the Green's conference earlier this month, has divided party figures and been criticised by Jewish groups.

Westminster leader Ellie Chowns told the BBC it was a "significant and damaging policy" and she would work to reform the party.

It comes after former leader Caroline Lucas said she felt the Green's structures were not protecting if from "entryism" - where people sign up to a party to try to change it.

The controversial policy also backs a "single democratic Palestinian state in all of historic Palestine", which includes modern-day Israel.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today Programme on Saturday, Chowns said: "I don't know if there are extremists and racists in my party. But I want to make sure that my party isn't vulnerable to capture by extremists and racists."

The MP described Zionism as a "contested concept" and said the motion did not represent the views of the large majority of Green Party members, "nor of people in the country".

Chowns said the motion would be a "distraction from the very important work" the party has been doing campaigning for Palestinian rights.

She added: "I think it is clear that if we have policy, such significant and damaging policy, made by a vote of just 0.4% of our members, that something isn't working in our structures and our policy-making process."

Members of the Green Party of England and Wales endorsed the policy motion by 1,022 votes to 813.

There are 230,000 members of the Green party overall and not everyone attended the conference.

The motion, among other statements, "supports the establishment of a single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital, equal rights for all, and the right of return for Palestinians and their descendants".

It defines Zionism as an ideology supporting "an ethnonationalist Jewish state".

The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council, which criticised the motion, said: "Zionism is anti-racism, creating a refuge for Jews in their ancient homeland after millennia of persecution outside it."