Police have confirmed they are investigating after the leader of the Green Party shared a social media post showing a guillotine in an alleged reference to Nigel Farage.
Brexit pioneer and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has demanded police arrest Green Party co-leader Zack Polanski after the politician’s Instagram account shared a post featuring an image of a man wearing a t-shirt showed a stylised image of a man examining the mechanism of a guillotine. Most associated with the late 18th-century Reign of Terror, the guillotine was used by revolutionaries to kill thousands of people with industrial efficiency.
Police confirmed they had received a report and said: “We take reports of this nature extremely seriously, and officers are conducting enquiries into the matter.”
Responding to the image contrasting lyrics from XTC’s 1979 New Wave hit record Making Plans For Nigel — “We’re only making plans for Nigel” — with the guillotine motif, Nigel Farage said if he had posted such a message about another politician he would rightly expect to be arrested.
A spokesman for Polanski said the post was deleted after the Green Party co-leader became aware of its contents and said he “unequivocally does not support this type of dangerous message.”
Several observers noted with particular concern the proximity of the political execution message implied in the post to the recent alleged murder in a hammer attack of veteran lawmaker and Reform Party colleague of Nigel Farage, Ann Widdecombe. Erstwhile Labour lawmaker-turned government political violence advisor John Woodock, Baron Walney spoke to this and said, reports The Daily Telegraph:
There must be serious consequences for Zack Polanski after he shared material implying the assassination of another politician.
This would be sickening and unacceptable at any time but it is even more serious in the present environment in which a senior Reform member has been brutally killed. The Green Party must be barred from participating alongside mainstream parties if it fails to take action against its leader.
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