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Zack Polanski suggests Donald Trump is a greater threat to the UK than Vladimir Putin
Apr 27, 2026
Lewis Goodall put the Green leader's latest comments on Trump and Putin to his predecessor, Natalie Bennett. Zack Polanski said, 'Ive never seen [Trump] threaten genocide. I've never seen him threaten to wipe out a civilization… Starmer’s so-called special relationship is more of a danger than what Putin is doing in Ukraine.' Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #lewisgoodall #trump #greens #polanski #uspolitics #debate #news #ukpolitics #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup
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We have a situation where we have Donald Trump acting in ways that are deeply disturbing for world peace and world security
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That doesn't, of course, we also have to worry about all the people who are at that dinner, the safety, the circumstances of the US
0:15
But I would imagine security will only be further stepped up in terms of the king's visit
0:20
So, but I don't think the king should be there in the first place
0:23
Turning to domestic matters, we are obviously on the verge. We're in a couple of weeks away now from those enormously important local elections. The Greens, it feels, are in a position to do something that we haven't seen for a long time, which is threatened to the left Labour in its new heartlands. Its heartlands being the capital, big urban combinations and so on
0:46
What is the limit to your ambition, particularly with regards to London? Could we be talking about, do you think, I don't know
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getting into the double digits in terms of councils taken? Well, I think I've been travelling around myself
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I was with Southwark Council yesterday. I would be with Brent this afternoon. I was with Lambus last weekend
1:05
And what we're finding, knocking on doors, speaking to so many people around London
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they are just utterly fed up with Labour and they're really excited, many of them, by the Green alternative
1:15
So I don't know what the numbers are going to look like. I don't think anyone can
1:19
I was talking to a pollster who said, well, we've produced these figures. But yes, when you look at the margin of error, it's very hard to tell
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But what I can say is I'm really confident that we will have a green mayor or mayors
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We will have green councils running boroughs around London. And we will have a very large number of green councillors
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I was just in Milton Keynes last night. And they're looking to win their first green councillors there
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So this is not something that's not just London. And, of course, it's right around England and Wales and Scotland
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are looking very exciting as well. I'm not sure if you saw the health secretary's comments, Wes Streeting
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He said that without introducing the entire Green Party and their activist base
1:58
when I see some of the people who joined the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn and have since left the Labour Party and joined the Greens
2:04
I feel a sense of relief. I feel sorry for the old cuddly environmentalists who are now overrun
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with a bunch of people who made the Labour Party unelectable who will be delighted that Zach Polanski would happily pull us out of NATO
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and they'll make any excuse under the sun to defend the indefensible. Are you the new Jeremy Corbyn party, Natalie Bennett
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as, of course, a leader who opposed him when he was leader of the Labour Party
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and you were leader of the Greens? Well, Wes Streeting, of course, I'm not sure that he's really understood
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the Green Party or the Green Party political philosophy. We have always said that economic and environmental justice are indivisible
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And one of the things that when I was leader from 2012 to 2016
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people kept suggesting that I'd change the party because I was talking about social justice
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But the Green Party has always talked about social justice just as we always talked around the world about the issues of people right to self people right to the rule of law human rights etc These are all
2:59
things the Green Party has been saying. What perhaps has changed a little is that we're being
3:03
heard a lot more than we used to be. And that's very exciting. And these are the Green principles
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that why I joined the Green Party and that the Green Party has always stood on
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Well, you are being heard a lot more. And inevitably, of course, being heard more means
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more scrutiny. The more successful you are, obviously, the more scrutiny that both you
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and your leader in particular are going to have. Your leader said something a couple of days ago
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that I think some people will find very surprising. He said this, as horrendous as Vladimir Putin is, I've never seen him threaten genocide. I've never seen him
3:32
threaten to wipe out a civilization, comparing him to Donald Trump and suggesting that in some
3:37
ways Donald Trump is worse. Would you like to tell the people of Butcher in Ukraine or the 20,000
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Ukrainian kidnapped children, that Donald Trump is a bigger danger to them than Vladimir Putin
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Well, I've been to Ukraine myself twice, and there first with the European Greens to show
3:53
solidarity with the Ukrainian people. The last time I went to Ukraine was with the all-party
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parliamentary group on explosive weapons and their impacts, looking at the issue of clearing up mines
4:03
and explosive weapons. So I'm acutely aware of the suffering of the Ukrainian people. And in fact
4:10
I've been to Bucca and seen the mass graves and seen all the photos there
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That's deeply serious. I think what Zach was trying to do is highlight the fact that we have to be realistic about
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Donald Trump's America, about America with Donald Trump in control. And I myself, a couple of weeks ago, heard Lord Coker, who's the defence minister in
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the Lords, saying words, pretty well exactly the words were, our relationship with America
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is closer than it's ever been. what we have to do is really get our government to be realistic about our current place in the world
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But the Ukrainians, the Ukrainians, Natalie Bennett, would be very clear, wouldn't they? They'd say there is a very clear difference between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin
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Trump, admittedly appallingly, has threatened genocide. Putin, they say, actually does it
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And here we have your leader drawing some equivalence between them, or indeed even suggesting or intimating or hinting that in some ways Donald Trump is worse
5:06
I think Zach is saying that we have to be very, very wary of Donald Trump
5:11
Wearier than Vladimir Putin? As wary as Vladimir Putin? Well, I think we look at the situation with Greenland
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Donald Trump was threatening to invade Greenland. And Putin actually did invade Ukraine. Trump hasn't invaded Greenland
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We've heard the Danes actually sent troops, they sent medical supplies. they were deeply concerned about the risk of an invasion of Greenland
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But it hasn't happened. Of course, we saw what happened. The Ukrainian war is four years old with tens and tens of thousands of casualties And we saw what happened in Venezuela which was in no way defensible in terms of international law We have an American president with an enormous amount of military power at his fingertips
5:53
We don't know what he's going to do next. Would you say, just to be clear, would you say that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are co-equal in terms of their threat to the world
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I would say that Zak was drawing attention to the risk that Donald Trump presents to the security of all of us
6:09
Of course, the situation with Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, the whole situation there has caused enormous problems around the world
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I don't think people have really quite understood the damage that's happened to Asian economies, to Asian people's lives
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You know, India is absolutely struggling to get enough gas for cooking so that people can eat
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So that's the kind of actions that Donald Trump has initiated. And we have to express concern about what he might do
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He said this. I think Keir Starmer, at this point, he said, it's not that Donald Trump is more of a danger than Vladimir Putin
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But I think that Keir Starmer's commitment to the so-called special relationship with Donald Trump is more of a danger to British people than what Vladimir Putin is doing in Ukraine
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That is just nonsense, isn't it? No, absolutely not. I mean, it's really important
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I quoted what a government minister was saying to my face in the House of Lords
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Just to lay it out for listeners. Natalie, just to lay it out for listeners, the US is one of our longest standing allies
7:08
Donald Trump, whether we like him or not, is democratically elected. Your leader is drawing an equivalence between him and Vladimir Putin
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a despot whose enemies are thrown out of tall buildings, as dangerous to us as a man who has deployed chemical weapons on British streets
7:24
Would Mr Polanski care to repeat his comments, for example, to the family of Dawn Sturgess, the British woman killed in Salisbury
7:30
Well, I feel absolute sympathy to the family of Dawn Sturgis and to all the people of Salisbury who went through the enormous shock of that
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But, of course, we have 14 US military bases on our soil
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We have CIA officers in important intelligence meetings with the UK. It's absolutely right to question whether with Donald Trump's America, that is a situation that is in any way safe to continue
7:56
I think lots of people would agree with that, Natalie Bennett, but they might quite reasonably disagree with the assertion that Donald Trump and the Britain's special relationship, a relationship which has for the last 80 years been a cornerstone of our security, is now more dangerous than a man who has repeatedly deployed chemical weapons on British streets
8:16
Well, the danger is that we have, if we continue to be unrealistic about, as I'm afraid our
8:23
government has been and continues to be, if we are unrealistic about the so-called special
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relationship, which there's always been very good questions to be asked about whether it
8:32
ever existed before but now to question that special relationship and say that we need to work with our European partners our European allies many of whom are very much looking towards saying we have to defend ourselves
8:46
we have to work with our neighbours, we cannot rely on the US. This is simply saying what many
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Europeans, our neighbours are already saying. I was speaking to some Greens from Scandinavia
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recently and they said they've just totally discounted the US in any role, they don't want
9:02
have any involvement with them. And, you know, we've also got to be very worried about US tech
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companies like Palantir. The Swiss military has refused to allow Palantir to have any contact
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be involved with their operations. There's many issues we have to ask about our security related
9:18
to the US. Your leader has also called for Donald Trump to be kicked out of his golf courses in
9:22
Scotland. He said, I don't think you should be able to start illegal and unpopular wars and still
9:25
have golf courses. I'd love to see those golf courses brought into community ownership. So your leader stands for the state expropriation of private property
9:32
if he doesn't like someone's political actions, does he? No, Zach was referring to something the Scottish Greens have been campaigning on
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People in Scotland will be well aware of. Well, they've distanced themselves from his comments, actually
9:43
Well, they have expressed concern about where Donald Trump's money come from
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where the money for those courses have. This is a much broader issue, something that I've done a lot of work on
9:53
through financial services and markets. What legal process, what legal basis would that expropriation take place under
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Through economic crime bills. We have measures which are not used against a great many people
10:05
who certainly they should be considered to be used against to ask where's the money come
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You think about many of the extremely expensive... Have you got evidence that Donald Trump has bought those golf courses
10:15
with illegal money? Well, I think that's something that might be investigated
10:20
We know what's happening with cryptocurrency and some very curious things that are happening
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in terms of the cryptocurrency in the Trump family. those are all things that are cause for concern
10:30
To talking about Scotland finally, if you want to vote for a party which keeps the UK together
10:34
and wants a party leader to fight to keep the UK together, given that Zach Polanski has said that he favours Scottish independence
10:41
should that person not vote Green at the coming elections? Well, the Scottish Greens determine our policy
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Our Scottish Greens went independent in 1990. We believe in the rights of self-determination
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But an English Unionist voter who thinks that the UK is better off together in this dangerous, turbulent world
11:00
they probably shouldn't vote Green because then they'll end up with a guy in Parliament who is quite happy to see our country break apart
11:05
which is quite an unusual position for a leading national politician. Well, an English unionist voter in England at the moment
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will be voting for their local council, will be voting for people who will be trying to improve
11:18
the maintenance of council buildings and their homes, will be trying to improve the state of the roads
11:24
will be trying to make them safer, the air cleaner. the green space is better. That's what people in England are voting about on the 7th of May
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