Politics
Zack Polanski Snaps On ITV’s Good Morning Britain
Zack Polanski clashed with presenter Ed Balls on Good Morning Britain and declared “people hate the media” in a tense interview.
The Green Party leader was speaking to the ITV programme on Monday when he hit back at Balls over his Labour Party background.
After a clash over reports from the Daily Mail that Polanski wants to change certain party policies, the party leader said: “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 to the leader of the Green Party.”
Balls, who is married to foreign secretary Yvette Cooper, said: “Are you accusing me of being a Labour politician?”
“You might have been a Labour minister fairly recently, in the last 20 years..” the Green leader replied.
Balls cut in: “Unfortunately Mr Polanski, I lost my seat in 2015 and I’ve not been a Labour politician for 10 years.”
After more back and forth with Balls, the Green leader interrupted: “I think you’re really struggling here.
“Ten days until local elections and today I’m announcing that I want to bring buses into public control, and reducing bus fares in cities and rural communities.
“I also want to talk about what’s happening in Manchester, Newcastle, London, and in Wales in the Senedd, where the Greens are picking up incredible momentum.
“It’s interesting that 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.”
Balls’ co-presenter Susanna Reid then tried to ask about Polanski’s previous claims that hypnosis could enlarge women’s breasts.
“You can accuse us as much as you like for not asking the questions that you want to answer – that is absolutely your prerogative,” she said.
“I think it is reasonable to ask you about something you said back then which was demonstrably untrue and to ask you about when you did actually change your mind.”
Polanski said: “This feels very much like this has been a set-up, where the Green Party hasn’t been able to talk about our actual plans at these local elections. That’s what I’m exposing.”
“I don’t think it’s unreasonable Zack Polanski to ask you about your integrity, about your beliefs, about what you say and whether that is the case or not,” Reid replied.
“You can be as angry as you like at the media. You might take issue –″
He hit back: “I’m not angry! This is what I expect sometimes when coming on this programme. But this is what I hear over and over again when speaking to the public, that they think political discourse has been eroded in this country.”
He ended the interview by adding: “You can annoy GMB by voting Green.”
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