Zack Polanski is ‘not concerned’ his claim he could enlarge women’s breasts with hypnosis will damage the Green Party‘s electoral chances.
The Green leader revealed he wants to take Britain back into the European Union if he enters government as he delivered his first major speech on the economy on Wednesday.
In a blizzard of fiscal giveaways, Mr Polanski also pledged to shell out £8.4billion to bring down energy bills, end right-to-buy, introduce rent controls and re-nationalise Britain’s utilities.
The Green leader insisted he is a ‘pragmatist not an ideologue’ and that his party can no longer be dismissed as ‘on the fringes’ as he set out his policies to the traditionally Labour-aligned New Economics Foundation.
Mr Polanski also offered a fresh apology after it emerged he had stood by his 2013 claim he could increase women’s cup sizes using his mind alone, after previously saying he had been ‘misrepresented’.
It came after a poll from More in Common revealed 33 per cent of voters would consider backing the Greens – but when they were told about Mr Polanski’s claim he had grown a woman’s breasts by ‘four inches’ this figure fell to 16 per cent.
Asked if he was concerned about the polling, Mr Polanski said he is ‘not concerned’ because the public ‘recognise it was 13 years ago, I’ve made a mistake and apologised’.
He added: ‘I got elected six months ago, on the very first day, the first thing the Labour press office did was tweet about that story.
Zack Polanski has been nicknamed ‘the boob whisperer’ by online wags over a 2013 interview when, while working as a Harley Street hypnotherapist, he claimed he could help women increase the size of their bust
While a Green candidate in 2019 Mr Polanski was among the first Extinction Rebellion activists to be arrested for blocking Waterloo Bridge in London
‘What were people’s responses? We’ve tripled in the polls, we’ve tripled in membership, we’ve made a lot more fundraising than we’ve ever had before, and I’m one-for-one in parliamentary by-elections. And so no, I’m not concerned.’
Speaking in a garden centre in north London, Mr Polanski railed against ‘rip-off Britain’ and called for the Government to spend £8.4billion to protect households from a spike in energy bills.
He also set out plans to cap rents, renationalise the water industry, and to end the right-to-buy scheme and let local authorities buy back former council homes.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance accused Mr Polanski of being ‘little better than a con artist’, adding: ‘Politicians need to resist the superficial appeal of Polanski’s empty soundbites.’
Tory shadow chancellor Mel Stride said: ‘Zack Polanski is a man who believes he can just keep shaking the magic money tree, with no consequences whatsoever.’
Mr Polanski said he would pay for his economic offerings by ‘strengthening’ the windfall tax on oil and gas companies and other changes such as equalising capital gains tax with income tax.
The Green leader also outlined his party’s plans for a ‘day one’ wealth tax that would see a 1 per cent levy on wealth over £10million and 2 per cent over £1billion ‘so the super-rich pay their share’.
He conceded that a ‘wealth tax won’t fix everything’ but said ‘it’s a good place to start’, adding: ‘For a truly progressive government a wealth tax should be a day one priority.’
In a wide-ranging speech the Green leader also suggested he was open to wiping all student debt and attacked Brexit, vowing to rejoin the EU if he was elected prime minister or entered government in a coalition with other Left-wing parties.
Mr Polanski said ‘I do want to see us rejoin the European Union’, adding: ‘I think we’re much better building our relationships with our European neighbours, including rejoining the Customs Union.’
He set out how a Green government would revamp the ‘bond market doom loop’, as ‘decades of fiscal tightening, often to meet fiscal rules, have meant stretched services, and people suffering’.
‘Successive governments have hemmed themselves in with an economics that denies people the services they require and support they rely on, often to placate a set of arbitrary rules,’ he said. ‘It is ridiculous, and we need to think again.’
Labour chair Anna Turley said that Mr Polanski had ‘the wrong answers’ on the economy.
She added: ‘Respected economists have sounded the alarm over the Greens’ ‘catastrophic’ plans to print money, which would hammer working people and their living standards.’
