Reform UK spokesperson Zia Yusuf has demanded that Green Party leader Zack Polanski be arrested following a controversial social media post. Police are “conducting inquiries” into an image shared on Instagram, after Reform UK reported Mr Polanski over the picture.
Demand for arrest
Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s spokesperson for home affairs, said Mr Polanski was “inciting murder” and called for his arrest. The image, later removed from Mr Polanski’s account, showed a man wearing a black T-shirt with the message “We’re only making plans for Nigel” and an image of a guillotine. Yusuf described sharing the image weeks after the death of Ann Widdecombe as “staggering”.
He wrote on X: “If Zack Polanski is not in police custody by this time tomorrow, the Police will have declared open season on Members of Parliament.”
Nigel Farage’s response
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage shared a screenshot of the post 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.”
The T-shirt design references the song “Making Plans For Nigel” by XTC, released in 1979. A website selling the T-shirt for £20 described it as “a nod to old punk music or a sharper bit of political satire”.
Green Party statement
The Green Party said Mr Polanski “condemns the image on the T-shirt” and had been tagged in a post with 20 images, clicking accept “without realising there was more to it than he had seen”. The party noted the T-shirt was “in poor taste, especially at a time of heightened fears for the security of public figures”.
A Green Party spokesperson added: “He and the Green Party call on everyone involved in public discourse to show kindness and not encourage more division.”
Police investigation
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “Earlier today – Monday, 27 July – 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.”
The image comes weeks after the murder of Reform UK spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe. Last week, prosecutors told a court that a man allegedly hit the former Tory minister 21 times over the head with a hammer in a “planned and targeted” attack.
