Good morning. Zack Polanski was largely unknown until he became the Green party leader in September last year and since then, as his party has soared in the polls, there has been intense scrutiny of his pre-politics career. The best-known embarrassing revelation about his past is the fact that he once told a woman he could enlarge her breasts if she listened to his hypnotherapy spiel. Nigel Farage, who also leads a dispruption party enjoying spectacular success, has scandals in his past too, and Polanski’s allies would argue that they are worse. Farage took a £5m donation from a political supporter which he did not declare, he still has not provided as good explanation as to how his partner was able to afford to buy a home in Farage’s Clacton constituency and arguably he told 30 million women that he could enlarge the size of their bank balances if they listened to his spiel on Brexit. Guardian readers can decide for themselves who is more dodgy.
But, as we tell our children, life isn’t fair. And it certainly isn’t fair for leftwing politicians campaigning in an environment where the rightwing media have considerable influence. Polanski discovered that again last night when the Times printed a story with various claims about him, of which the main one related to an allegation about his embellishing his CV. Here is our version by Jessica Elgot.
So it was not hard to guess what the first question would be when Polanski was interviewed by Nick Robinson on the Today programme a few minutes ago.
Asked why Polanski in the past said he was a spokesperson for the British Red Cross when the charity said he wasn’t, Polanski replied:
I hosted various fundraisers for the British Red Cross, and indeed I would go on stage and speak for them about the amazing work they do tackling humanitarian crises, on the climate crisis and indeed for refugees all around the world.
I used the wrong word and I accept that.
But I would essentially take words on stage with me and speak.
It’s important, though, and I accept this, [British Red Cross] don’t support any political party, and I’ve made sure [that claim has] been taken down.
Polanski attacked the Times for publishing what he described as an antisemitic cartoon of him last week. They should apologise for it, he said. And he went on:
It feels some of these stories feel like scraping the barrel to go back 10, 15 years.
I’ve had so many friends – I’m literally talking maybe 20 or 30 in the last few weeks – who have phoned me and said a Times journalist has been phoning and they’ve been desperately trying to find things about your past. They asked me lots of questions and seem disappointed that I didn’t have some juicy, dirty gossip.
There was a lot more in the interview, and I will post more from it soon.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, is campaigning in London.
10am: Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, holds an election rally.
Lunchtime: Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader, is campaigning in Llandudno.
Afternoon: Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, is campaigning in Surrey.
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