Reform UK has reported Green Party leader Zack Polanski to the police over an Instagram post showing a man wearing a t-shirt that referenced the beheading of Nigel Farage. Police are now making inquiries into the matter.

The controversy began when Polanski, who leads the Green Party of England and Wales, shared the post on his Instagram account. The image showed a man in a t-shirt alluding to the beheading of Farage, the Reform UK leader. Farage then shared a screenshot of Polanski's post on X, formerly Twitter, drawing wider attention to it before police became involved.

Nigel Farage said Polanski should be arrested over the post, POLITICO Europe reported. The Guardian published its account of the police inquiries on 27 July 2026, reporting that officers were making inquiries after Farage reported the post for incitement — the offence of encouraging others to commit a crime. Reform UK publicly announced on its official Instagram account that it had reported Polanski to the police over what it called the guillotine post.

Polanski deleted the Instagram post after the controversy erupted, according to POLITICO Europe. The BBC published both a video news story and a written article on 28 July 2026, and also produced a programme segment on the story. The BBC's coverage tags Zack Polanski, Nigel Farage, Reform UK, and the Green Party (England and Wales) as related topics.

The broader context here is that the incident places the conduct of party leaders on social media under scrutiny, with both Reform UK and the Greens competing for political attention. Polanski's decision to share the image, and his subsequent deletion of the post, raises questions about the judgment expected of party leaders when amplifying content that could be read as threatening. Farage's decision to report the post himself, rather than leaving it to party officials, is consistent with his direct style of political engagement and ensured the matter escalated quickly to police attention. Reform UK's own decision to announce the police report on Instagram also illustrates the degree to which social media platforms now serve as both the venue for political disputes and the channel through which they are escalated.

The police inquiries are at an early stage. The Guardian's reporting on 27 July described officers as "making inquiries," which in policing terms typically precedes a formal investigation and does not indicate that any offence has been determined to have been committed. Whether the Crown Prosecution Service — the body that decides whether to bring criminal charges in England and Wales — would become involved depends on the outcome of those inquiries and the threshold for charging under relevant communications or incitement legislation.

It is worth noting that the Green Party of England and Wales operates separately from the Scottish Greens, who are a distinct party in Scottish politics. Polanski's leadership therefore covers England and Wales only, a devolved-politics distinction that matters when assessing the national reach of any political fallout from the episode.