'We all make mistakes in life, and what we do afterwards is we apologise,' the Reform leader said
Nigel Farage has branded Zack Polanski as “incapable of acting in a decent way” after the Green Party leader refused to apologise for sharing a post that called for his beheading.
The Reform UK leader said “I expect the Metropolitan Police to act” after Mr Polanski said it was “quite obvious” he had not “done anything wrong, other than make an inadvertent mistake”.
It has since been confirmed the force will not take any further action against the Green Party leader.
On Monday night, Reform had reported the Green leader to the police over “incitement to murder” when he shared the image of a man in a black t-shirt emblazoned with the words: “We're only making plans for Nigel,” alongside a guillotine.
Mr Polanski admitted he “didn't pay enough attention to the t-shirt” in question but insisted: “If I’d done it deliberately I’d be apologising.”
"When the person posted it, it got less than 1,000 likes... It's now had 3.2million views. So actually this has been seen more because (Nigel) Farage, Zia Yusuf and Richard Tice posted it,” he said, defending his actions in a Newsnight interview.
Reacting to the lack of apology, Mr Farage pointed out that: “If people post on social media things that are racist or insightful? They nearly always get a knock at the door and are charged. And that's right and proper.
“If we're going to have an even field on this, then (Mr) Polanski, who is in a position of serious responsibility with a large number of followers, cannot, cannot put out on his social media the image that he did without some consequences.”
The Reform leader suggested he could be willing to look past the incident, but the lack of contrition from Mr Polanski made that impossible.
“We all get things wrong in life. We all make mistakes in life, and what we do afterwards is we apologise.
“Given that he refuses to apologise. I expect the Metropolitan Police to act.”
Mr Farage also confirmed that he had not received any private message from the Green leader “whatsoever”.
“It's strange because two weeks ago he said, well, I have no protection. I publicly said: ‘Zack and I take different positions on politics. He deserves protection.’
“I've tried to be fair and reasonable with him. He is clearly incapable of acting in a decent, normal way.”
“We're saying all of this just a few weeks after the murder of Ann Widdecombe. I think that really should be a wake-up call to all of us to argue with passion, but to act responsibly.” Mr Farage said.
A Green Party spokesman has said Mr Polanski “condemns the image on the T-shirt”.
“He was tagged in a post with 20 images and clicked accept without realising there was more to it than he had seen.
“The T-shirt is clearly in poor taste, especially at a time of heightened fears for the security of public figures having experienced multiple threats himself.“
He and the Green Party call on everyone involved in public discourse to show kindness and not encourage more division,” the spokesman added.
