Met Police takes no action over Zack Polanski repost row

The Metropolitan Police said it would take no further action against Zack Polanski after the Green Party leader in England and Wales reposted an image of a man wearing a T-shirt with a guillotine and the slogan “we’re only making plans for Nigel.” The force said it did not believe sharing the picture constituted an offence, closing a complaint that had escalated rapidly through party politics and social media.

Reform UK reported Polanski to police after he shared the Instagram post in late July. The image borrowed the line from The Vapors’ song “Turning Japanese,” but the guillotine graphic gave the post a sharper political edge and turned it into a public row. Nigel Farage then shared a screenshot on X and accused Polanski of “inciting murder,” while some coverage said the Reform UK leader wanted Polanski arrested.

Polanski deleted or unshared the image and said it was an “inadvertent mistake.” He refused to apologise to Farage, and a Green Party spokesperson said the post had been shared accidentally. The dispute put the Green Party leader under pressure over a repost that he said he had not intended to publish, even as his opponents treated it as a test of judgment rather than a simple social media slip.

The Independent said the Met decided not to pursue the case because an extensive investigation would have been disproportionate and not a reasonable use of police resources. BBC News and Metro also said Polanski would not face police action, while ITV News had reported earlier that police were looking into the complaint after Reform UK raised it.

The episode also drew comment beyond the two parties. Senior minister Pat McFadden said politicians should be “careful” about how they use social media, reflecting the broader sensitivity around posts that can travel far beyond their original audience. For Polanski, the legal outcome ended the police case, but the political consequences of the repost have not gone away.