Police make inquiries after Farage reports Polanski post for ‘inciting murder’

Police are “conducting inquiries” into an image shared by Green party leader Zack Polanski on Instagram after Reform UK reported it for “inciting murder”.The image showed a man wearing a black T-shirt with the words “we’re only making plans for Nigel”, alongside a photograph of a guillotine.A Green party spokesperson said that Polanski “condemns the image on the T-shirt” and accepted being tagged in a post with 20 images “without realising there was more to it than he had seen”.Nigel Farage shared a screenshot of the image on X and wrote: “This is what Zack Polanski has just posted on his Instagram.“If I was to post anything as inciteful then I would expect to be arrested, and so should Polanski.”Reform UK’s spokesperson for home affairs, Zia Yusuf, said Polanski was “inciting murder”, and that sharing the image weeks after the death of former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe, who was murdered in her home in Devon, was “staggering”.Last week, prosecutors told a court that a man allegedly hit Widdecombe 21 times over the head with a hammer in a “planned and targeted” attack.A Green party spokesperson said: “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 [Polanski].“He [Polanski] and the Green party call on everyone involved in public discourse to show kindness and not encourage more division.”A spokesperson for the Metropolitan police said: “Earlier today, we received a third-party report relating to an image shared on social media.“We take reports of this nature extremely seriously, and officers are conducting inquiries into the matter.”Yusuf wrote on social media: “Zack Polanski has posted to his 713k Instagram followers a photo of a man in a T-shirt calling for the beheading of Nigel Farage.“Polanski is inciting murder. It must be treated as such by the police.”The image, which has since been removed from Polanski’s Instagram account, was shared in a collaborative post with other accounts, as part of a carousel of images from a Green party event on Sunday.The words on the T-shirt come from Making Plans for Nigel, a song by English rock band XTC, which was released as the lead single from the 1979 album Drums and Wires.A post on a website that appeared to sell the T-shirt for £20 stated: “Whether it’s a nod to old punk music or a sharper bit of political satire, this design is for those who prefer their statements with a side of mystery.”Earlier this month, Andy Burnham said that a serious review is needed into MP security after the murder of Ann Widdecombe. Jess Phillips previously told the Guardian that the threat to MPs must be tackled at source, amid an ongoing refusal by social media platforms to take responsibility for what’s published on their platforms.According to the BBC, Polanski has not been contacted by the police.