The Green Party of England and Wales has refused a request from its leader, Zac Polanski, to postpone the party's annual conference in order to concentrate resources on the Holborn and St Pancras by-election. The executive committee voted against the proposal on Thursday, confirming that the conference — expected to draw around 3,000 attendees, making it the party's largest ever — will proceed as planned in Brighton from 2 October, just days before the 8 October vote. The decision is significant not only logistically, as the final conference weekend would draw away the party's most active canvassers, but also politically: the conference is set to debate a contentious motion that would equate Zionism with racism, a matter of particular sensitivity for Polanski, who is Jewish and has yet to state his public position on the issue.