Here, Larry Sanders discusses climate campaigning, the US presidential race (in which Bernie Sanders is a frontrunner), and whether the Labour Party is left-wing…

You must get asked a lot about Bernie, but how do think the campaign is doing?

He’s doing very well. It’s Bernard versus everybody. Elizabeth Warren is a strong candidate [but] besides her I don’t think anyone is serious. In America the Green New Deal is very big. [Also] very big is the health system which is such a disaster.

On health care, they’re all fudging. They’re all drifting towards maintaining private insurance. And the private insurance system makes it impossible to have a good health system. It absorbs such a vast amount of money. Americans are already spending more than they need to for a good health service on a crappy health service. So they could very easily make the change in terms of money. They’re lucky in that.

There’s hundreds of billions being poured into pockets – it has no economic or health function whatsoever. I don’t think anyone has beaten that quantity of money. The whole industry goes. It’s useless, unnecessary, and it will go –I don’t think any of the other [candidates] will stand up to it. So he’s doing very well, but the battle is only just commencing.

Will you go out to campaign for him?

I’ll be out there, yes, whether I’ll be campaigning or drifting around I don’t know.

Do you speak to him a lot?

We used to speak very regularly, but now he’s so all over the country. He used to have his Sundays free. But he doesn’t have any more. But we stay in pretty good contact.