Met Police will not take action over the photo Zack Polanski shared of a T-shirt ‘showing Nigel Farage‘s execution’.
The Green Party leader shared a photo on Instagram of a man wearing a shirt ‘inciting the murder of Farage’.
Polanski insisted he has not ‘done anything wrong’ and made an ‘inadvertent mistake’ but will not apologise for the post, which he shared to his 713,000 followers on Monday.
The Met Police said on Wednesday night that it had completed its probe.
The Green Party leader sparked fury on Monday when she shared an image featuring a man wearing a black T-shirt with the message, ‘We’re only making plans for Nigel’ and an image of a guillotine.
It saw Mr Farage call for his political opponent to be arrested, while Reform’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf accused the Green leader of ‘inciting murder’. The party confirmed it had reported Mr Polanski to police.
At the time, a Met spokesman said the force was ‘conducting inquiries’ and took ‘reports of this nature extremely seriously’.
In an attempt to defend himself, Mr Polanski told BBC Newsnight on Tuesday that the police had not been in contact with him, adding he ‘didn’t pay enough attention to the T-shirt’ and was ‘horrified’ by its ‘dangerous message’.
Nigel Farage called for Zack Polanski to be arrested after the Green Party leader shared a photograph of a man wearing a T-shirt ‘planning his decapitation’
Zack Polanski insisted he has not ‘done anything wrong’ after the Green Party leader shared a photograph of a man wearing a T-shirt allegedly ‘inciting murder’
The Green Party leader said during the programme on Tuesday night: ‘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.
‘As soon as I was aware of what happened, I unaccepted it and took it down.
‘I think it would be odd for the police to speak to me about that because I think it’s quite obvious that I’ve not done anything wrong other than making an inadvertent mistake.
‘That being said, if the police do want to talk to me, of course I’m very happy to co-operate.’
A Met Police spokesperson said: ‘We absolutely understand the reaction to this image being shared online, particularly in the context of increasing threats towards politicians.
‘We take the safety and security of those in public life, including politicians, very seriously. Where we identify threats we take appropriate action and where there is evidence of offences we will investigate.
‘While there will be people who will argue that those who shared the image in this Instagram post should be subject to criminal action, our review has concluded that on this occasion, the threshold is not met. We have spoken with those impacted to explain that decision making and to provide reassurance around our ongoing commitment to their security and the additional support available.’
– This is a breaking news story, more to come.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login