Zack Polanski says he's apologised 'many times' after newly unearthed 'hypno-boob' interview

less than two weeks away from what are predicted to be dramatic local elections next week as, well, there are all sorts of challenges for all of the party, but momentum appears to be growing for the Green Party, which is now, we're told, looking to throw out some of their more unpopular proposals. But will it be enough to win over unconvinced voters? Should the Greens be sticking to their principles? The Green Party leader

joins us live from Salford. It looks like you are doing a bit of a Nigel Farage here, Mr Polanski. Last year, reform did very well in the Runcorn-Helsby by-election and then started ditching their tax policies. You did very well in the Gorton- and Denton by-election a couple of months ago and now you are telling us you are going to be ditching some of your long-standing green policies. We thought we would ask you about a

few of them. Shall we start with immigration? Is it still green?

We are not actually ditching any policies. The story is not true. First of all, to start with that. Our members vote on our policies. And then we decide the manifesto that we put towards the public.

So you told Politico that you were looking to revise your party's democratised and at times chaotic and unwieldy system, which lets members set the policy agenda. So I assume you wanted to do that in order

that you could very different agenda. I assume you wanted to do that in order to change the policy. I don't want to change the policy, I want a more democratic system. Green Party members decide Green Party policy and at the moment we have 226,000 members and it is growing. We need to look at more agile systems so there is more democracy in the party. That is not about me changing party. A Green Party official says right now it is like we have a list of policies for the Daily Mail to

ring us up about. Let's take at face value... I don't care what the Daily Mail rings up about, I want to challenge more millionaires. Your party official... The Daily Mail won't like that. You are speaking to me, not a party official. I am the leader of the party. course the Daily Mail won't like that. Anyway, so let's get to details. Right, so you're speaking to me, not a party official, right? And I'm the leader of the party. And I'm saying that if the Daily Mail are unhappy,

then we're probably on the right track. Because I want to tax multimillionaires and billionaires, and I want to end rip-off Britain.

You're not just a party official, Mr Polanski, You are the guy in charge, you are the leader. That's why you are on our programme. So let's start. Is it Green Party policy to say that on motorways you are going to change the speed limit from 70 miles an hour to 55 miles an hour to improve the environment and getting us to drive more

slowly? That's not been in the manifesto. In ten days' time we have local elections and unsurprisingly speed limits are not on the ballot. So it is not your policy to cut speed limits? And never was? Well, there is a difference, as I am saying, between what the members vote on and then also what we have in a local election and speed limits are not

in a local election. So the party officials or the members may have said it was 55 miles an hour, but you, the leader, are saying no, that is not the policy because you

are deciding that. The important point is that what the members have decided already in the document says this will be reviewed and updated. If people vote on things in the 1980s or 1990s, that gets regularly reviewed. More widely though, speed is an issue and we need to make sure at the local elections

in some of our cities, like London, there's been a brilliant campaign for 20s Plenty to make sure we're reducing the speed limit to end deaths on our road and to make sure we have harm reduction. We also know there's an issue with petrol prices

and actually encouraging people to drive slower is all good. You are also going to raise petrol taxes. That's also party policy? To raise petrol taxes, fuel duty taxes? Ed, I'm not sure what you're missing here, having been a Labour politician, but at a local election, petrol prices are not usually on the ballot. What is on the ballot, though, is we want to make sure that we're bringing

it back into public control. But your recent policy document said you were going to raise... ..into public control. But your recent policy document said that you were going to increase tax on fuel to discourage car use and that money would be used to redress the negative environmental and social consequences of transport. So all I'm doing is just reading green documents and asking you whether they are still policy and they're going to change. And, you know, and you've been explaining that you're in charge

rather than officials or members. So it sounds like you do want to reduce speed limits, but you're not sure about raising petrol prices.

Well, two things, I and members are in charge, not officials, so that's just separating that. Second, reading green documents is doing a lot of heavy lifting there Ed. Ultimately, anyone can decide that they're going to write a document, call it a green

document and... Can I be honest with you? I've been loving reading them. It's absolutely fascinating. Apparently the Green Party wants a world without borders. Now I've got to say you are the first person who's ever wanted to be Prime Minister in Britain who thought you could have a country which didn't police our borders. Is that really green policy?

Do you know what I'm enjoying? The fact that a Labour politician who is married to a senior Labour minister is allowed to ask questions of a leader of a Green Party. This is not our manifesto and what you're doing is a lie. Are you accusing me of being a Labour politician? I'm accusing you, well it's not even an acquisition, you know, we are planning to replace the Labour Party and take the fight to reform. But what you're asking me right now... You said I was a Labour politician, did you mean that or not?

Well you might have been a Labour minister fairly recently, you know, in the last 20

years.

Look, unfortunately Mr Planski, I lost my seat in 2015 and I've not been a Labour politician for 10 years. Luckily, you're a Green politician, you are the party leader, and you seem to be using a rather elaborate device of making accusations against me to avoid answering the questions, but the great thing is we can just keep going. So, is it Green Party policy to abolish our borders?

I'm answering your questions. No, it's not. It's never been in a manifesto. And ultimately, what you're doing is a huge detraction from the fact that we want a fair and managed system of migration. And I've been clear about that and the party's been clear about that for years.

Is it your policy to legalise drugs so that you could get cannabis without any legal check and you could also legally get heroin, but only on prescription. Is that Green Party policy?

Well, the UK has the highest drug deaths in Europe. And in fact, for the last 14 years, drug deaths have increased every single year. So our policy is to legalise and regulate drugs. That doesn't mean you can buy drugs in a supermarket. It means that they're handled by a medical health professional. So if someone has a dangerous addiction to

drugs, rather than burying their head in the sand, as successive governments are doing, and pretending that the war on drugs is working, this is about taking an evidence-based approach that's led by medical health professionals. Once again though Ed, unsurprisingly this isn't on the ballot paper in 10 days in a local election.

I know.

But I think it's important people know what voting green would mean in the local elections and the general elections. Is it Green Party policy, as members voted for in October, to abolish all private landlords?

Well, this is about making sure that we build more social housing and we end the privatisation of our housing. Far too often we see huge skyscrapers going up, particularly in our cities, where no one's living in them and they're being sold off to foreign investors. This is about making sure that we're building houses that are actually homes for people, alongside bringing in rent controls. Up to 50% of renters are just one paycheque away from losing their home. That's unacceptable. We need to make sure that we're ending rip-off Britain

and bringing people's costs down. And by the way, that is in a local election. Well done on that one.

I'm too intellectually engaged in this conversation and it's not fair, so I'm going to hand over to Suzanne now.

Your turn. Yeah. Thank you. That might be an idea. very non-intellectual question which is about hypno-boobing. You were asked by Beth Rigby, Sky News's political editor, about this the other day, your interview with a newspaper back in 2013 where you said that you could increase the reporter's bust size. Now we talked to you about this back in September, I said it was a matter of principle because of course we wanted to know, you know, people want to

know who they're electing. We asked you on Good Morning Britain, do you believe that hypnosis could enlarge a woman's breasts? You said no, I was misrepresented, I apologised a day later. But that's not true, is it? Because almost a week later, after you'd done that interview with the newspaper promising to increase a woman's boobs, you did an interview with Radio Humberside and this is what you said in that.

Actually, there was an article in the Sun last week where a client came to see me who was a journalist and we had a successful project. We've done it a couple of times and there seems to be no shift but actually increasingly more and more as I work with people there's starting to become anecdotal evidence at least of a growth in breast size.

So you actually believed that you could increase her boobs and you doubled down on it a week later. So when did you decide that you couldn't increase

her boobs? I'm sure the audience will be delighted that you're asking me a question about something that happened 13 years ago, including an interview a week after a Sun article when I've apologised many, many times since. More strikingly, I stand by that apology, but it will notice, your audience will notice that I'm talking about taxing multimillionaires and billionaires, taking wealth away from powerful people

and putting it back in our communities. And GMB 10 days before a local election, rather than asking me about our policies around food banks or spending money on our public services or making sure people are supported in this country.

I'm just listening,

Ed asked you about 10 different policies.

Are asking me about it. I asked you about our borders. None of which. I asked you about fuel prices, I asked you about immigration, I talked to you about drugs policy, I could have asked you about abolishing the horse racing industry, I talked to you about abolishing private landlords. These are all vital things which we want to

know about. I thought you would like to answer these questions. I think you're really struggling here. Ten days till a local election and today I'm announcing that I want to bring buses into public control and make sure that we're reducing bus fares in cities and in rural communities. I also want to talk about what's happening in Manchester, in Newcastle, in London, in Wales and in Mersenneth where Greens are picking up incredible momentum. It's interesting you don't want to ask me about any of these things. You want to just do shock jock tactics and by the

way this is why people hate the media. Well, hang on a sec Mr Polanski, you accused me of being a Labour Cabinet Minister 16 years ago and then when Susannah asked you about something you said 10 years ago, you said it's illegitimate to ask you about things you stood for ten years ago.

I mean, the double standards is a bit shocking.

Two of those things are not the same. Someone pretending to be a journalist who's interrogating the leader of a political party having a very strong association with a Labour government who are currently in power is very different to asking me about a story when I wasn't a politician from 13 years ago that I've apologised for repeatedly.

And I'm not sure what value your audience are getting from this conversation.

You didn't finish that sentence.

When we're typically having questions about the serious issues.

You didn't finish that sentence, you know. I was asking you about questions about you 10 years ago pretending to increase the size of women's breasts.

Of which I said, I apologised, it was wrong, and I stand by that apology. I'm not sure how many times you want to get me on my programme to apologise for that. I think most of the audience would think, he's apologised, why are you still talking about this?

I'll tell you why, Zak Polanski, it's because you'd said that you had apologised for it the next day, but in fact, a week later, you said you still believed it. So my question was, at what point did you decide it wasn't the case that you could do that? I don't think that is an illegitimate question and you can accuse us as much as you like for not asking the questions that you want to answer, that is absolutely your prerogative. I think it is reasonable to ask you about something which you said back then, which is demonstrably untrue,

and to ask you about when you did actually change your mind?

Well, let me answer that question, although I answered it, you know, several times in the last few weeks. I didn't ever believe that. That was a Sun Journalist idea. I shouldn't have gone along with it. That was a mistake. It was 13 years ago, before I was a politician.

I stand by that apology. I also apologised years and years ago, way before I became even deputy leader of a political party and elected member of the London Assembly and then leader of the Green Party. I've apologised for this over and over again. What I'm a lot more concerned about right now is that Donald Trump killed 168 girls in Iran and we are calling a special relationship or allyship with Donald Trump. I think those are serious conversations we should be having as well as the local elections.

But this feels very much like this has been a set up where the Green Party haven't been able to give the opportunity to talk about our actual plans at these local elections. And that's what I'm exposing. Of course you're able to ask me questions. Of course you're able to scrutinise me. In fact, I want to be scrutinised. But why not scrutinise me on what's actually on this election that people are voting for rather than these kind of silly side stories that don't actually make a meaningful difference. I don't think it is unreasonable,

Zak Polanski, to ask you about your integrity, about your beliefs, about what you say and whether that is the case or not. You can be as angry as you like at the media, you might take issue... I'm not angry. Sorry, you use the phrase that is why people hate the media. That is not the phrase of someone who's not angry.

I'm not angry because you know this is what I expect sometimes when I come on this program, but also speaking to the public. I hear over and over again that actually they think political discourse in this country has really been eroded and has really been debased because far too often we're talking about Westminster bubble stories or things that are distractions or gossip, apart from the fact that people can't heat their homes, they can't put food

on the table, they can't afford the bus to work. We live in the fifth wealthiest country in the world, where the 50 wealthiest families own more wealth than 34 million people. I think these are the things

that we should be talking about. I've got to say, Zak Polanski, I just think you are getting this really wrong. You had a very good by-election win, you've been doing well in the opinion polls. If we have Keir Starmer or Kemi Baden-Ock or Nigel Farage on our programme, we ask them questions about their policies and how they would change the country if they were to be in government. I've asked you about your approach to borders. I've asked your approach to taxation and fuel,

to speed limits, to private landlords, to the legalisation of drugs. I could have asked you about NATO. Those aren't illegitimate questions. That's not us playing politics or being shock jockey. We're asking you serious questions. And if you don't want to answer serious questions,

people will then not think you're being a serious politician. So my advice would be answer the questions when you get asked them.

Well, rather than take your advice, I want to look at the polls, where the Greens right now, the under 65s are polling in first place. We are frequently polling above the Labour government and are often fighting for first or second place with the Reform Party. I think what people are seeing when they hear from me and the Green Party is a party who are serious about serving our community and tackling the climate crisis. Yes, again, I repeat, you are welcome to ask me questions and you can ask me any questions you want.

But I think people want to know actually about my plans and the party plans in 10 days at these local council elections, where we are set to have record breaking results. And people probably want to know what green councillors and green councils are going to do.

And in a word or in a phrase, you have the floor. Tell us what you wanted to be asked and what you would answer.

Well, I'd want to end rip off Britain and I wanna make sure that we're ending the toxic combination of low wages and high bills and make sure that we're putting money back into people's pockets. Far too often we have austerity coming from this government

under investment. We had it 14 years under the Conservative government and now a Labour government. What Green councillors will do is make sure that money and that wealth is going into our communities, into our public services, into our buses and making sure we are making hope normal again. That is what a Green vote gets you in ten days' time and you can annoy GMB by voting Green. a Green vote gets you in ten days' time and you can annoy GMB by voting Green.

The problem is that, Polenski, wealth taxes are decided by central government, bills are GMB by voting Green.