Polanski stands firm after guillotine post row

Zack Polanski has refused to apologise to Nigel Farage over the guillotine post row, even after admitting that the Instagram repost was a mistake. The Green Party of England and Wales leader said he deleted the image after it prompted outrage, but he argued that Farage had turned the episode into a dishonest attack.

The dispute began on Monday evening when Polanski shared a photo of a man wearing a T-shirt with a guillotine graphic and the words, we’re only making plans for Nigel. Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, described it as a picture of a man calling for Farage to be beheaded and said it could amount to incitement to murder. Farage later posted a screenshot on X, saying that if he were to post something inciting, he would expect to be arrested and that Polanski should face the same standard.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Polanski said he would not apologise because he had not posted the image deliberately. He said the photo came from a set of 20 from a party and that he had agreed to collaborate with the Instagram account of a photographer at the event. He said he did not notice the slogan on the shirt at the time and only saw other details, including a rainbow hat, while scrolling through the images.

Polanski said the key point was that the post was an inadvertent mistake and that he had already condemned political violence. He also said he had made a commitment to be more careful on social media. When asked a second and third time whether he would offer an apology, he declined, saying Farage had cropped the image in a way that made it appear as if he had posted it directly and had only amplified the matter. He said he did not want to “play his game” and suggested the Reform leader had used the row as a political attack.