Met Police will not take action over the photo Zack Polanski shared of a T-shirt seemingly showing Nigel Farage‘s execution.
The Green Party leader sparked fury on Monday when he shared an image to Instagram 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’.
The Met Police said on Wednesday night that it had completed its probe.
In an attempt to defend himself, Mr 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.
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’.
The Green Party leader said during the programme on Tuesday night: ‘This was not my post, it was a collaboration from a photographer.
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’
‘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 no further action would be taken after ‘reviewing a number of conclusions’.
The force said: ‘It is unlikely that the sharing of the image online would constitute a criminal offence. Officers have considered telecommunications, public order and other offences, including incitement, in reaching this conclusion.
‘The image in question was the 18th in a post containing 20 images. The person named on the reports received has stated publicly, either directly or in statements issued on his behalf, that he had not seen the specific image in question when he accepted the invitation to collaborate. Steps were taken to remove the post from his account when the issue was raised.
‘The post has since been shared (whether by collaboration, reposting or sharing) by around 130 accounts. The image has additionally been shared on many more occasions on other social media platforms. We must not treat individuals differently solely because of their public profile, and therefore any investigation would need to have considered not just the actions of the individual named in the reports, but of all 130+ people and organisations. Given it is unlikely their actions would have ultimately constituted an offence, such an extensive investigation was deemed to do be disproportionate and not a reasonable use of police resources.’
The Met said it had determined ‘that a crime should be recorded in relation to the wearing of the t-shirt’.
It said that as the event where the shirt was taken took p[lace in Bristol, the case had been transferred to the Avon and Somerset Police.
The force added: ‘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.
