The Greens are the only mainstream party seriously battling the prospect of a “far right-adjacent” government led by Nigel Farage, the party’s new leader, Zack Polanski, has argued, after spending a day in Farage’s constituency talking to voters.

Two days after winning the leadership of the Greens in England and Wales with 85% of the votes cast, Polanski took the very direct route of travelling to Clacton-on-Sea to ask people about the policies supported by the MP they elected last year, and to listen to their views.

The chats – some of which saw self-professed Farage backers express support for Green policies including a wealth tax and more official routes for asylum seekers – will be packaged into a social media video, part of a strategy by Polanski to reach more voters with the party’s messages, an approach directly echoing that of Farage.

Polanski told the Guardian he was alarmed at the polling success for Reform UK, a party he described as “on the far right, or at least far right-adjacent in terms of the causes and issues they’re willing to align with”.

He condemned Labour and Keir Starmer for failing to properly challenge Reform’s rhetoric over proposed mass deportations, saying that mainstream parties were failing to step up to the challenge of pushing back against Farage’s ideas.

“I think it’s an understatement – I think they’re fuelling it,” he said. “Nigel Farage had that despicable press conference about immigration last week and Keir Starmer should have been front and centre condemning it as a prime minister of this country, but actually he was implicitly condoning it.”

Polanski’s personal contribution in Clacton involved stopping locals to ask for their views on policies such as zero-hours contracts and fire-and-rehire, where staff are dismissed and taken back on with worse pay and conditions – and then telling them that Farage and Reform have expressed support for both ideas.

“Absolutely disgusting,” said Stuart, a 49-year-old man stopped by Polanski and his one-person video team on a parade of shops near Clacton’s pier. “I didn’t know. I voted for him. Now he definitely doesn’t have my vote. I thought he was standing up for the British people and had some respect for us.”

This was, however, among the more strident reactions, and with the Greens having finished a distant fifth in Clacton at the general election, it is not about to become a target seat. More common was people expressing surprise at Farage’s views, but still saying they liked him. “He’s a showman,” said Tom, 39, a former Tory voter who has since backed Reform, standing outside a local pub.

And while several people told Polanski they sympathised with Green policies on the environment and equality, they were adamant that the plans were either unrealistic or pointless. In some cases they cited a supposed of lack of money owing to, as one woman put it, “all the migrants coming over and staying in hotels”.

Polanski said: “It’s a kind of nihilism that I understand how people end up in. And I think the only antidote to that is to keep winning at local level, to keep community organising. As soon as people have had the first taste of things changing, they start to realise that politics and democracy can work.

“That’s probably one of the strongest differences between me and Farage. He’s highly critical of political and democratic institutions, and I think he would want to dismantle them entirely. I’m critical of them, but only because of the people running them and the vested interests.”

One of Polanski’s key appeals in his leadership race against the duo of Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns was the pledge that as a persuasive former actor he would get the party more attention. Based on the first two days of his tenure, he is doing just that.

According to a count kept by his media adviser, speaking to the Guardian on Thursday was the 61st interview he had done as leader, while a hastily released podcast series, Bold Politics with Zack Polanski, was fourth in the UK news podcast charts.

The hope, he said, was to counter the “sheer repetition and emotive storytelling” from the likes of Farage on issues such as small boats.

“I reached a point a couple of years ago where I realised how much time we were spending complaining about media coverage for the Green party, and I still think that’s legitimate,” he said. “But I also think at some point you’ve just got to step up and you’ve got to go even if all the odds are stacked against us. The Green party’s role is to cut through and to be able to tell an alternative story.

“I keep saying ‘cut through’, and it’s not just being heard. It’s about making people feel things and want to get involved, want to talk to their friends and neighbours and colleagues. It needs the same effective, repetitive messaging, but that’s actually based on the truth and the facts, rather than the lies and misinformation that’s been spun.”