\n<\/p>\n
The Green party leader, Zack Polanski, has said he would refuse to work with Keir Starmer but could work with Andy Burnham, Starmer\u2019s potential rival for the Labour leadership, to keep Reform out of power.<\/p>\n
Polanski said he would not enter a political partnership with Labour under the current prime minister, but would consider it if the mayor of Greater Manchester took the helm.<\/p>\n
He told the Financial Times: \u201cI could see the potential to work with Andy Burnham to stop Reform and to challenge the rise of the far right. I would rule it out with Keir Starmer, but I wouldn\u2019t rule it out with Burnham.\u201d<\/p>\n
A coalition would require the Greens getting an adequate number of seats at the next general election to make the party useful to Labour, and would also need Burnham to once again gain a seat as an MP.<\/p>\n
Polanski argued Labour\u2019s plan for the economy was not working. He called for a wealth tax, as well as an increase in capital gains tax to bring it in line with income tax. \u201cI am challenging a broken, failed economic model, and the people defending it have no answer other than just to continue with what is broken,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Keir Starmer \u2018seemed a very nice guy\u2019, said Gary Lineker, left, in an interview with Zack Polanski. Lineker is seen here attending a St George\u2019s Day event at No 10 in April.<\/span> Photograph: Stefan Rousseau\/PA<\/p>\n However, Gary Lineker defended the prime minister in an interview with Polanski, saying he had met Starmer \u201ctwo or three times\u201d and he \u201cseemed a very nice guy\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he\u2019s having a tough time. Obviously he\u2019s not a hugely charismatic leader, but I don\u2019t necessarily think that\u2019s important,\u201d the football pundit and TV presenter said.<\/p>\n Speaking on the podcast Bold Politics with Zack Polanski, Lineker also said there was \u201ctoo much political influence from the very top\u201d of the BBC, and the organisation had \u201ctied itself up in knots\u201d over impartiality.<\/p>\n The former Match of the Day presenter, who quit the BBC earlier this year, said he had a \u201cgreat affinity\u201d with the institution but: \u201cI think they\u2019ve got a little bit broad into this whole impartiality thing and I think that that makes it very, very difficult for them.\u201d<\/p>\n Lineker said in recent years, impartiality had been expanded beyond news and current affairs and into the rest of the BBC. \u201cEven though we\u2019d been on social media for years, we were expected to suddenly change. And I thought that was difficult,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cOverall, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of people that work for the BBC that are really, really good people that do excellent jobs. But I think it\u2019s tied itself up in knots a little bit with the impartiality thing because I think what we really need is truth and reporting, in that sense. It\u2019s impossible to be impartial on everything.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cMy personal issues, it was difficult, it was over a long period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n Lineker said the way a government decided who was on the board of the BBC and who was chair should be done with more of a \u201cneutral\u201d perspective, because those brought in by politicians \u201cwill obviously be partial\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they\u2019re going to talk about impartiality, start at the top,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly difficult for the BBC, but I think at the moment there\u2019s too much political influence from the very top.\u201d<\/p>\n Polanski asked the presenter why he had been so outspoken about immigration.<\/p>\n Lineker said: \u201cI know it\u2019s an issue, immigration, I know it\u2019s difficult, you can\u2019t take everybody. But I think we should do our fair share and look after people.<\/p>\n \u201cI have empathy towards their situation. I think there\u2019s a small percentage that are the opposite, so I felt it was quite important to use my platform to perhaps speak on behalf of those that don\u2019t have a voice.\u201d<\/p>\n Though he had suffered a backlash online from the right, having been a footballer, \u201cyou learn to deal with abuse\u201d. He said: \u201cI took it as a compliment.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2026, Lineker said, he wanted to see \u201cproper peace\u201d in Gaza.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got a ceasefire but it\u2019s not really a ceasefire at the moment,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve spoken about this quite a bit and I look at my phone every day and I cry most days when I see it. I mean, innocent kids being just killed [with] snipers and bombs. It\u2019s just immeasurably wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cAnd of course Israel has the right to defend itself. But then why doesn\u2019t Palestine have the right to defend itself? It doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Lineker, who has received criticism for talking about the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, said: \u201cPeople will disagree with this and they try and make an argument but I always say to them, if you genuinely think this is fabricated, let journalists in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Green party leader, Zack Polanski, has said he would refuse to work with Keir Starmer but could work with Andy Burnham, Starmer\u2019s potential rival for the Labour leadership, to keep Reform out of power. Polanski said he would not enter a political partnership with Labour under the current prime minister, but would consider it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[3265,1601,11440,564,838,1347,415,514,15434],"class_list":{"0":"post-39809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-burnham","9":"tag-greens","10":"tag-polanski","11":"tag-prepared","12":"tag-reform","13":"tag-starmer","14":"tag-stop","15":"tag-work","16":"tag-zack"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}