Zack Polanski refuses to apologise over guillotine image as police investigate
Green Party leader Zack Polanski is being investigated over a reshared guillotine image targeting Nigel Farage, which he calls an inadvertent mistake but will not apologise for.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski is under police investigation after he reshared an Instagram collaboration that included an image of a guillotine and the words 'we're only making plans for Nigel'. The image was widely understood as a reference to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Reform UK reported the post to police and accused Polanski of incitement to murder.
The post was part of a collaboration of about 20 images. Polanski said he accepted it without reading the T-shirt properly. He said the image was the fifth in the set and that he was looking at people partying. He said he removed the post as soon as he became aware of the guillotine image. He has condemned political violence, violent imagery and violent metaphors.
Reform UK's response has been forceful. Nigel Farage said that if he posted anything as insightful, he would expect to be arrested, and so should Polanski. Zia Yusuf said the post was incitement to murder. Polanski also said Yusuf warned that if he was not arrested by the next day, it would be open season on all MPs. Polanski called that hyperbole.
In a broadcast interview, Polanski said police had not been in touch with him. He said he would cooperate if they did, but argued it would be odd for officers to speak to him because he had done nothing wrong beyond an inadvertent mistake. He accepted that as party leader he has responsibility for what he posts.
The interview became a test of whether he would apologise to Farage. Polanski refused. He said he would apologise if he had posted the image deliberately, but not for an accident. He said Farage had cropped the image to make it look as though Polanski had posted it, and that the row had been amplified to 3.2 million views after initially getting fewer than 1,000 likes. He said an apology would allow Farage to claim he had been right about incitement to murder and would ramp up the dispute again.
Polanski also said he would apologise if Farage apologised for occasions when he had put other people in danger. He said he had received a death threat that day and that in May a Nazi near a Reform banner had thrown a salute at him and was arrested, which he said received little attention. He added that the police report and the language used against him had put him in a dangerous position.
The Green Party has said that once the image was brought to Polanski's attention he immediately unshared the post and does not support its dangerous message. Polanski said he accepted that the message was dangerous but said he had corrected it immediately. Police continue to look into the matter, and Polanski said officers had not been in touch with him.
On screen
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Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, grouped by how many channels reported each one. Select a dot to see the source excerpt.
| Claim |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| Reported by all 2 channels | ||
| Police are investigating a social media post re-shared by Green Party leader Zack Polanski. | Reported by BBC Two | |
| Reform UK accused Zack Polanski of incitement to murder over the post. | Reported by BBC Two | |
| The post included an image of a man in a T-shirt with a guillotine and the word Nigel, linked to Nigel Farage, and the shirt also featured wording about making plans for Nigel. | Reported by BBC Two | |
| Only on one channel | ||
| Zack Polanski declined to apologise to Nigel Farage, saying he would only apologise if he had posted the image deliberately. | Not reported by Channel 5 | |
| Zack Polanski said police had not been in touch with him. | Not reported by Channel 5 | |
| Zack Polanski said the post was a collaboration with a photographer, contained 20 images, and that he accepted it without looking carefully and removed it after noticing the T-shirt. | Not reported by Channel 5 | |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
The lunchtime bulletin gave the story a short, straight news mention within a wider roundup. It focused on the police investigation, the guillotine T-shirt image and Reform UK's accusation of incitement to murder. It noted that Polanski condemns the image but did not cover his refusal to apologise or his detailed interview defence.
- “Police are investigating a social media post re-shared by the Green Party leader Zack Polanski.”
- “In it, a man could be seen wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a guillotine and the word Nigel, leading to Reform UK's leader Nigel Farage.”
- “The party has accused Polanski of incitement to murder, but the Green Saint, Mr Polanski, condemns the image.”
The programme treated the story as a major political interview, putting Polanski on live and pressing him on police contact, responsibility and whether he would say sorry. It gave him room to set out his account that the post was an inadvertent mistake and to accuse Farage of amplifying it. The tone was sceptical and adversarial, with the interviewer repeatedly challenging his refusal to apologise.
- “This was not my post. It was a collaboration from a photographer. It had 20 images, and I just didn't look carefully enough, and I accepted it.”
- “Do you want to take this opportunity to apologise to Nigel Farage? Well, if I'd done it deliberately, I'd be apologising.”
- “So I condemn any incitement towards him or any violence towards him, no matter how much I disagree with his political views or anyone else.”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.