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Reform report Polanski to police over picture he didn’t post

πŸ“° The Canary πŸ• July 30, 2026 at 4:48 AM
Zack Polanski of the Green Party and Nigel Farage of Reform UK

On Wednesday 27 July, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage posted the following to Twitter/X:

The image in question shows a guillotine next to the message β€œWe’re only making plans for Nigel”. And Farage is certainly correct to think he would have attracted criticism if he’d published something similar.

Farage is less correct to suggest Polanski β€˜posted’ the image, but we do agree the Greens leader was correct to apologise. We also agree with those who pointed out that some of the objections from Reform are a bit rich given the behaviour they tolerate from their own politicians.

We don’t condone this either

As theΒ BBC reported, Reform UK has now reported Polanski to the police. The Met Police have issued the following statement:

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.

To make something abundantly clear, we don’t condone the guillotine image, nor indeed any call for violence. While ordinary crime may be down compared to the end of the last century, acts of terror and political violence are becoming unfortunately common (not to mention acts of state violence which are perpetrated by the police and other agents of the government). Online culture no doubt feeds into this; as does the increased disparity people now experience. These issues need solving holistically if we’re going to get off the dark path we’re walking down.

Polanski and the Green Party have made their feelings clear too, with a spokesperson stating:

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.

Some people have described the t-shirt as β€˜satirical’. The image pictured is obviously a reference to the French Revolution – the period when the downtrodden people of France rose up to execute the decadent aristocrats – and modern references to the β€˜guillotine’ are a nod to the growing wealth disparity we’ve seen in recent decades (and to what many predict will be the inevitable outcome of this unchecked greed). There is a difference between vaguely memeing about guillotines online, though, and directly linking an execution device to a politician. And this is true even when the politician in question has said things like the following:

For reference, Connolly tweeted this, which led to her eventual imprisonment:

Potentially, Farage and his allies will take this moment to reconsider the support they’ve given Connolly. That or they’ll drop their calls for the t-shirt man to face arrest. You’d assume it has to be one or the other, but we’ll see.

β€œTo be clear”

The offending image was posted by formerΒ Canary photographer and contributor Barold.Β Barold said the following in response to the controversy:

To be clear, [Zack Polanski] did not in any way post this photo. I took this photo of someone in a satirical tshirt and I posted it as part of a run of photos which were offered for collaboration. This wasn’t intended to offend anyone and it’s clearly not intended as a serious…

Threat to anyone’s safety whatsoever. The idea that people would be making serious threats or incitement to violence by using a picture of guillotine is absurd, and whilst I acknowledge the very real threat to MPs safety let’s be real here, the call for political violence…

Is not something that is being normalised by left wing political figures or individuals. Individuals from the far right of British politics have normalised the idea of political violence over the years – the last thing Jo Cox heard before her murder was β€œBritain First”….

There were numerous studies after her murder that showed how many people on the right were making jokes and memes about what happened. This performative outrage is just that, and if people want to come and take it out on someone then take it out on the person who took the…

Picture, and who then posted it. Don’t use the short sighted actions of a freelance Photojournalist called fucking Barold as an excuse to go after [Zack Polanski] because you don’t like his politics. Pretending that this is any sort of threat is insulting to the memory of people…

Like Jo Cox, and like Anne Widdicombe and the many many people every year who are victims of real crime, and real political violence every year. I personally have been run out of protest areas while doing my job by a mob of right wing fascists in the last few months…

During the protest at Edgeware recently I was physically threatened by individuals wearing transparent earpieces while doing my job. There is the real and genuine threat of political violence all around us, being heightened by the divisive and dangerous politics that are being…

Peddled by reactionary individuals who sit in TV studios and write in columns in the press every day – taking advantage of this issue is disingenuous and far more dangerous than that t-shirt will ever be.

My deepest apologies to [Zack Polanski] – this is not his fault.

CanaryΒ contributor Cameron Baillie posted a video showing a similar encounter to that which was described by Barold:

Wider response to Reform

Among those who responded to the controversy was Aaron Bastani ofΒ Novara, who said the following in response to Barold’s tweet:

Violence against politicians, and political figures, is an incredibly real prospect. From councillors and MPs to just activists. Amping that up in no way helps left wing politics.

I appreciate this is a joke, but the context means it’s not a laughing matter. A Reform figure was literally killed a few weeks ago.

Politically, though, Reform run risk of looking irrelevant. It’s week 2 of Burnham admin, and he’s really going for it.

Reform, meanwhile, are contesting a by election against a guy dressed as a bin, and calling for Zack Polanski to be arrested.

Reform politicians are directly calling for Polanski’s arrest too, including Zia Yusuf:

As noted at the top, this is all very shaky ground for Reform. In the past few months alone, we’ve reported on the following in relation to Reform politicians:

Of these, only one has been removed from the party:

We’re not highlighting this to justify the guillotine t-shirt; we’re highlighting it to note that Reform needs to get its own house in order. And asΒ Canary writer Maddison Wheeldon said in response to a post about Simon Evans:

Reform need to get their own house in order

Incidents like this are best seen as opportunities for those involved to reflect and grow. For Zack Polanski and his team, it’s an opportunity to reflect on what they share on social media. For the t-shirt man, it’s an opportunity to ask if the message he’s broadcasting is being received as he expects. And for Reform UK, it’s an opportunity get their own house in order when it comes to violent and murderous rhetoric.

Featured image via the Canary

By Willem Moore

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