Zack Polanski's claim that he immediately apologised for offering hypnotherapy to increase a woman's breast size has been thrown into doubt by an unearthed interview. The Green Party leader offered a session to a reporter in 2013 when working as a hypnotherapist.

The "eco-populist" has since insisted he was "misrepresented" and said he apologised the day after in an interview with the BBC.

But the BBC has reported that it cannot find evidence of such an interview.

And it has emerged that Mr Polanski stood by his theory in an interview with Radio Humberside almost a week later.

Mr Polanski said: "Actually there was an article in The Sun last week where a client came to see me who was a journalist and we had a successful project,' he said. "We've done it a couple of times and there seems to be no shift.

"But, actually, increasingly more and more as I work people there's starting to become anecdotal evidence, at least, of a growth in breast size."

When asked on Good Morning Britain last September if he believed at the time that hypnosis could enlarge a woman's breasts, he said he was "misrepresented", adding: "I apologised a day later."

Later the same month, he told the Pod Save the UK podcast of the 2013 article: "I went out on BBC radio the next day, so not 12 years later when I became a politician, but literally the next day to go 'this article doesn't represent me'."

A Labour source said: "Zack Polanski’s ego might have got bigger, but nothing else has.

"It’s now clear that his pretence to have been misrepresented over his breast enlargement hypnosis scam was absolute nonsense - he got called out years later, and he lied about it.

"You can’t trust a word he says - he’ll say whatever he thinks you want to hear."

A Green Party source said: "Zack has repeatedly apologised for an interview he did with the Sun more than a decade ago.

"Now, Zack is focussed on the issues that really matter to people: bringing down bills, protecting the NHS and rebuilding our public services."