Nigel Farage demands police investigate Zack Polanski over guillotine T-shirt post
Zack Polanski has condemned an image of a man wearing a guillotine t-shirt and the words ‘making plans for Nigel’ after Reform UK branded it an ‘incitement to murder’.
The Green Party leader upset Nigel Farage after sharing a series of now-deleted pictures from a party event with his 713,000 followers.
The fifth picture reportedly featured a man with a colourful hat and a t-shirt that said ‘We’re only making plans for Nigel’ – an apparent reference to an XTC song.
It has a man standing by a guillotine but doesn’t use Farage’s image or name explicitly.
A Green Party spokesperson said: ‘Once this image was brought to [Zack’s] attention, he immediately unshared the post. He unequivocally does not support this type of dangerous message.’
The post was hastily deleted, but not before Farage posted a screenshot, adding: ‘This is what Zack Polanski has just posted on his Instagram.
‘If I were to post anything as inciteful then I would expect to be arrested, and so should Polanski.’
Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, said ‘this is incitement to murder’ with the party reporting the Instagram post to the Met Police.
The Green Party spokesperson continued: ‘Zack 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.’
A Met spokesman said: ‘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 enquiries into the matter.’
The BBC reported that Polanski had not been contacted by the police.
Who took the picture?
The photojournalist who took the picture, known as Just Barold, apologised to the Green leader.
He said on X: ‘To be clear, Zack Polanski did not in any way post this photo. I took this photo of someone in a satirical t-shirt and I posted it as part of a run of photos which were offered for collaboration.
He ended: ‘My deepest apologies to Zack Polanski – this is not his fault.’
The £20 t-shirt is made in Manchester.
In an online advert, the manufacturer says: ‘Who could Nigel be? And why the guillotine?
‘Whether it’s a nod to the XTC classic or a sharper bit of political satire, this design is for those who prefer their statements with a side of mystery.’
It is also sweatshop-free and 100 per cent cotton.
Nigel Farage has seen his popularity plummet in recent weeks with the rise of Andy Burnham, who has announced a host of policies to help ease the cost of living crisis.
A YouGov poll found Labour is up six points from its low of 16% recorded as recently as May, while Reform UK’s figure is the lowest recorded by our tracker since March 2025.
Nigel Farage’s top rival in the race has also taken on the Reform leader directly, with a promise not to ‘accept £5 million gifts from crypto billionaires’.
Binface emerged as an unlikely threat to Farage earlier this month, after the under-pressure party leader unexpectedly resigned as an MP so he could rerun in the resulting by-election.
The move appeared to backfire quickly, when all the major parties decided against taking part in a vote they described as a ‘stunt’ and ‘vanity project’.
As a result, Farage finds himself facing 33 opponents – a record for a UK parliamentary election – almost all of whom are fringe figures or comedy characters.
But it is Count Binface who has most captured the public imagination, with Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves among those revelling in the idea of Farage spending his summer ‘arguing with a bin’.
Deputy Editor
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
