Met Police To Take No Further Action Over Zack Polanski's Nigel Farage Post

The Metropolitan Police has confirmed it will take no further action after Zack Polanski reposted a guillotine t-shirt image which appeared to take aim at Nigel Farage.

The Green party leader accepted a collaboration of 20 photos on Instagram earlier this week, one of which showed a man wearing a t-shirt which said, “we’re only making plans for Nigel” and had an image of the guillotine.

Polanski later deleted the post but Reform UK reported the incident to the police.

Farage claimed a political leader with a following like Polanski’s “cannot put out on his social media the image that he did, my name, the guillotine, without some consequences”. 

The Green leader refused to apologise during an appearance on BBC Newsnight, claiming it was “quite obvious” he had “not done anything wrong apart from make an inadvertent mistake”.

In a statement last night, the Met Police said it did not believe sharing the image constituted an offence.

“We absolutely understand the reaction to this image being shared online, particularly in the context of increasing threats towards politicians,” the officers said.

“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.”

A Green Party spokesperson said it was “obvious from the start” that no crime had been committed, and claimed Reform was “using this as a political football for their own cynical purposes” as a distraction.

A Reform UK spokesperson said: “Once again we see that we are living in two-tier Britain.”

The force recorded a crime over the wearing of the t-shirt itself and passed it onto Avon and Somerset Police, as the image had been taken in Bristol.

However, the force said “the threshold for a criminal offence has not been met”.

Avon and Somerset Police said: “Particular consideration has been given to the context around the image; its use of song lyrics, and the marketing of the T-shirt as a satirical piece.

“No complaints were received from people at the event at which it was worn and there is no evidence the wearer of the T-shirt intended to threaten any individual, or encourage anyone else to do so.”

The force said it took the safety of elected politicians “extremely seriously” and would take action “wherever a threat is identified”.

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