Hello and welcome to The Rundown, a podcast from Politics Home with me Alan Tolhurst.

This week, we're taking a look at perhaps the forgotten winners of last year's general election.

As despite unprecedented success in winning 1.8 million votes and quadrupling the number of MPs,

the Green Party finds itself at something of a crossroads.

How does it build on that success? What can it do to remain part of the conversation?

And champion its progressive causes, as all the oxygen of public discourse appears to be taken

up with how the two main parties hold off the threat from Niger Farage and reform.

We'll be to discuss where the party goes and how it can build on continued success at local level,

exploit the disillusionment some voters have about labour,

and I'm delighted to be joined by one of the candidates to lead the Greens in this new era,

their current deputy leader and London Assembly member, Zach Polanski.

Alongside him we have Sophie Stowers, research manager at the think tank More in Common,

and my colleague Sophie Church,

reporter at a sister title, The House Magazine.

So I'll start with you, Zach, just firstly, I suppose, what made you decide to throw your hat in

the ring to become leader? I think we're at this really interesting moment in British politics,

where we've

had 14 years of conservative austerity and underinvestment, and of course it was even earlier

than the previous government. And lots of people voted for the Labour Party wanting change,

but actually whether it's for winter fuel payments, for two child benefit cap, the genocide in Gaza,

I think people have seen a Labour Party that doesn't seem to have

stuck with where people traditionally thought labour values are at. So I feel like there's a real

...