Green Party of England and Wales leader Zack Polanski has repeatedly refused to apologize to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage after sharing a controversial social media image depicting a guillotine. The dispute began on Monday evening when Polanski accepted an Instagram collaboration request, resulting in a photo of a man wearing a T-shirt with a guillotine and the slogan "we're only making plans for Nigel" appearing on his feed.
Reform UK's home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, condemned the image, stating it showed a "photo of man calling for the beheading of Nigel Farage," which he warned could constitute an "incitement to murder." Following the backlash, Polanski was reported to the Metropolitan Police. Although he quickly deleted the post, Polanski confirmed during a television interview that law enforcement had not contacted him. The Metropolitan Police stated they had no updates regarding the complaint received on Monday.
Polanski defended his actions as an "inadvertent mistake," explaining that he had not read the slogan on the T-shirt before accepting the collaboration because he only saw "people partying" and noticed a rainbow hat while scrolling through the images. The post was the fifth image in a series of 20 from an event. Polanski argued that Farage had amplified the situation in a "fundamentally dishonest way" by cropping the screenshot to make it appear as though Polanski had posted the photo himself. Farage had shared the cropped image on X, writing: "If I was to post anything as inciteful then I would expect to be arrested, and so should Polanski."
When pressed multiple times to apologize, Polanski declined, stating that doing so would allow Farage to claim validation on social media. "You know as well as I do that as soon as I do that Nigel Farage would run all over social media saying he was correct about incitement to murder and this would all ramp up again," Polanski said. He added, "I think it's important that I draw a line and don't play his game… It is important that he's kept safe, it is important we condemn political violence, but I also recognise this as the political attack that it is." Polanski further remarked that he would be happy to apologize if Farage apologized "for all the times that he's put other people in danger."
The Green Party leader also revealed he received a death threat on Tuesday, warning that the escalation of rhetoric was putting him in jeopardy. "The ramping up of the language to say 'this is incitement to murder me' feels like that's also putting me in a dangerous spot," Polanski said, describing the situation as "surreal" and noting it would be "odd for the police to speak to me about that because I think it's quite obvious I've not done anything wrong other than make an inadvertent mistake."
Meanwhile, Reform UK has escalated the matter, requesting the monitoring officer of the Greater London Authority—where Polanski serves as an elected member—to investigate whether he violated the code of conduct. Keith Prince, a Reform London Assembly Member, dismissed Polanski's defense, saying, "To say that he was unaware of what he was promoting is frankly risible." Additionally, an unnamed Reform UK source expressed outrage to a news program, calling it "truly astonishing and quite frankly sickening that Zack Polanski won't apologise for inciting murder." The source added, "He admits it was wrong. He admits it's dangerous, but he still refuses to apologise. Mr Polanski is not fit to lead a national political party."
Commenting on the controversy on Tuesday, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden emphasized that politicians have a responsibility to exercise caution online. McFadden noted there is a "duty on all politicians to be careful about what they post," particularly following the death of former MP Ann Widdecombe earlier this month.
