Robert Jenrick has called for Green Party leader Zack Polanski to face the “full force of the law” after sharing a “completely unacceptable” social media post about Nigel Farage.
Speaking to GB News, the Reform UK Treasury Spokesman declared that Mr Polanski “knew exactly what he was doing” when he collaborated on the post.
Mr Polanski is now facing a police investigation after sharing an Instagram post depicting a man wearing a t-shirt, calling for the beheading of Nigel Farage.
The post, shared with his 713K followers and later deleted, featured a man wearing a T-shirt which read: “We’re only making plans for Nigel,” alongside a guillotine.
Reacting to the post on GB News, Mr Jenrick expressed his outrage at the move by Mr Polanski, stressing that there are “already people in prison” for threatening to kill Mr Farage.
Mr Jenrick fumed: “Zach Polanski is the leader of a national political party, and he has collaborated with a post on social media with a guillotine with blood on It, saying this is being prepared for Nigel Farage.
“And the context is that one of our colleagues was brutally murdered just a few weeks ago, Ann Widdecombe, and there are hundreds and hundreds of death threats against Nigel Farage, many of them credible.”
He added: “A man is serving in prison at the moment who came across on a small boat for setting out to kill Nigel Farage. Another man was arrested the other day for threatening to kill Nigel Farage.
“We’ve got extreme trans action groups calling for violence against Reform members of Parliament. Zack Polanski knew exactly what he was doing, and he does need to face the consequences.”
The Reform MP backed the police investigation into the post, stating it is “absolutely right” that it is looked into.
He said: “You cannot have threats of violence against Reform MPs because you don’t like what we say, because we call for secure borders, an end to mass migration, because we’re not prepared to see radical Islam take over this country, because we take the strong calls on the big issues facing this country.
“If you incite violence, then there should be consequences for that, and so I I’m pleased the police are investigating.
“Ultimately, it’s up to them how far they take this, but Zack Polanski needs to face the full force of the law for his actions.”
Challenging Mr Jenrick’s argument, host Ellie Costello questioned the matter of free speech and their support for Lucy Connolly, who was imprisoned for a social media post.
Mr Jenrick hit back: “Lucy Connolly was a mum, someone not involved or barely involved in public life. Zack Polanski is the leader of a national political party.
“Of course, I’ll always defend the right to offend people, but I’ll never defend the right to incite violence, to encourage people to kill people for serving in public life, people who are known to be facing credible death threats, where there are people in prison for actually attempting to kill them.
“That is what Zach Polanski did in this case. That is completely unacceptable.”
Recalling the murders of fellow MPs Sir David Amess and Jo Cox, Mr Jenrick concluded that incitement of violence against political figures has “got to stop”.
