The Met Police has said it is taking no further action after Nigel Farage called for Zack Polanski to face “consequences” after sharing and then deleting an image that appeared to call for the Reform UK leader to be decapitated.
The Metropolitan Police has confirmed that no further action will be taken against Green Party leader Zack Polanski following an investigation into a social media post linked to Nigel Farage.
The investigation centred on an Instagram post that Polanski shared before later deleting. The image was reported to have appeared to depict or suggest the decapitation of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.
In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said it understood the public concern surrounding the post, particularly given the increasing number of threats directed at politicians.
A spokesperson said the force takes the safety and security of public figures “very seriously” and investigates potential threats where there is evidence that a criminal offence may have been committed.
However, after reviewing the incident, officers concluded that the legal threshold for criminal action had not been met.
The force said it was “unlikely” that sharing the image would constitute a criminal offence. Investigators also took into account Polanski’s explanation that he had not seen the image before sharing it and that he removed the post once it came to his attention.
The Metropolitan Police added that any investigation would have needed to consider not only Polanski’s actions but also those of more than 130 other individuals and organisations who had shared the same image.
Given the conclusion that those actions were also unlikely to amount to a criminal offence, the force said carrying out such a large-scale investigation would have been disproportionate and an unreasonable use of police resources.
Responding to the decision, a Reform UK spokesperson criticised the outcome, saying: “Once again we see that we are living in two-tier Britain. Zack Polanski is allowed to get away with inciting murder whilst ordinary people up and down the country get a knock at the door making a joke online.”
The Metropolitan Police said it has spoken to those affected by its decision and reaffirmed its commitment to protecting politicians and other public figures from threats and abuse.The Metropolitan police’s decision comes after the Green party leader for England and Wales said he had made an “inadvertent mistake” and would not apologise to Nigel Farage.
Polanski told the BBC’s Newsnight programme he had accepted a request to collaborate with a photographer on Instagram, with the first photo in a set of 20 showing himself, and the fifth showing the T-shirt.
The image was later removed from Polanski’s feed, with the Greens saying the T-shirt was “clearly in poor taste”. Polanski told Newsnight: “As soon as I was aware of what happened, I unaccepted it and took it down.”
Investigations into both, Zack Polanski and the original uploader of the content have been dropped.