Nigel Farage has reported Green Party leader Zack Polanski to the Metropolitan Police after an Instagram post shared with his 713,000 followers showed a man wearing a T-shirt featuring a guillotine and the words “We’re only making plans for Nigel”.
The image, part of a carousel of 20 pictures from a Green Party event, depicted a man in a black T-shirt with a large guillotine below lyrics from the 1979 XTC song. Polanski deleted the post, but not before Farage took a screenshot and wrote on X: “If I was to post anything as inciteful then I would expect to be arrested, and so should Polanski.”
“Nigel Farage reports Green Party leader Zack Polanski to police over Instagram post showing guillotine T-shirt.”
Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, said the post amounted to “incitement to murder”, pointing out that it came just two weeks after Ann Widdecombe, a former Tory minister who served as Reform UK’s justice spokesperson, was found dead in her Devon home. Joshua Kerry has been charged with her murder.
The Green Party responded swiftly. A spokesperson said: “Once this image was brought to [Zack’s] attention he immediately unshared the post. He unequivocally does not support this type of dangerous message.” The spokesperson added that Polanski had been tagged in a collaboration post and “clicked accept without realising there was more to it than he had seen”, describing the T-shirt as “clearly in poor taste, especially at a time of heightened fears for the security of public figures”.
The freelance photographer who took the picture, known as Just Barold, apologised to Polanski on X, saying it was “not intended to offend anyone” and that he had reported himself to the police. He described the outrage as “performative”.
Metropolitan Police confirmed they had received a third-party report and that “officers are conducting enquiries into the matter”. The BBC understands Polanski has not yet been contacted by police.
Reform UK said Polanski has not privately apologised to Farage. The Greens have been approached for comment.