Victoria Derbyshire and Zack PolanskiVictoria Derbyshire clashed with Zack Polanski on BBC Newsnight the Green leader was reported to the police for resharing an Instagram post about Nigel Farage.
Reform UK accused Polanski of “incitement to violence” after he accepted a collaboration on a series of photos, one of which showed a man in a t-shirt featuring an outline of a guillotine and the words: “We’re only making plans for Nigel.”
Polanski later deleted the entire post and a spokesperson said he “condemns” the image.
Police said they were “conducting enquiries” on Tuesday but are not thought to have spoken to the Green Party leader directly yet.
Derbyshire was asked if he wanted to apologise to Farage during an appearance on BBC Newsnight.
He replied: “No, the reason for that is that when I posted it – or this person posted it – it got less than a 1,000 likes.
“Nigel Farage then took it, cropped it, which made it look like I had posted it which I think was fundamentally dishonest – it’s now had 3.2 million views.
“This whole conversation has been seen more because I think Nigel Farage, Richard Tice and Zia Yusuf posted it.
“I’m accepting that responsibility in that I shouldn’t have accepted that collaboration, I’m accepting that we all need condemn political violence, but I also think the reporting to the police, the ramping up of the language to say this is incitement to murder to me feels like it’s also putting me in a dangerous spot.”
Polanski said it was “quite obvious he had not done anything wrong apart from make an inadvertent mistake”.
He also said he “condemns all political violence” and criticised the “disproportionality” of reporting around the incident.
When Derbyshire asked again if he wanted to apologise, Polanski said: “If Nigel Farage wanted to apologise for all the times he’s put other people in danger, then I’ll be happy to make an apology.”
Polanski has previously triggered backlash for retweeting criticism of the police who dealt with the Golders Green attack – but he apologised at the time “for sharing the post in haste”.
The Green Party leader also made a commitment “to be better on my social media”.
But Derbyshire said it would be fair for voters to assume Polanski could be “careless” with his responsibilities if he were ever prime minister.
“It’s my job to make sure I build trust, through my action and my behaviour,” he said.
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