Zack Polanski has been blasted for his refusal to apologise to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage after sharing a social media post with a T-shirt calling for his beheading.
Speaking to GB News, political commentator Duncan Barkes said the Green Party leader’s refusal to back down and apologise is “embarrassing”.
When questioned on the now deleted post, Mr Polanski told the BBC that if he’d “done it deliberately”, he would “be apologising”.
Newsnight host Victoria Derbyshire grilled the Green leader, telling him: “You’re accepting it was dangerous and yet you won’t apologise?”
Mr Polanski responded: “I accept it’s a dangerous message that I shared inadvertently, and I’ve corrected that immediately.
“If Nigel Farage wants to apologise for all the times that he’s put other people in danger, then I’ll be happy to make an apology.”
Delivering his verdict on Mr Polanski’s response, Mr Barkes told GB News that Mr Polanski is “becoming a liability for his political party”.
He said: “When he became leader, the membership went up, they went up in the polls. I’m old enough to remember when the Green Party really cared about environmentalism, when they had their Green MP Caroline Lucas for Brighton Pavilion.
Duncan Barkes has declared Zack Polanski’s refusal to apologise to Nigel Farage ’embarrassing’
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GB NEWS / INSTAGRAM / BBC
“She once got arrested for protesting against drilling somewhere in Sussex, pretty sound, green behaviour.”
Mr Barkes argued: “Now we appear to have a Green Party leader who spends his time on social media sharing stuff that is remarkably unpalatable in these politically heightened times, where we know political violence is on the increase.
“Various MPs right across the political spectrum have talked about death threats and rape threats. All really unpleasant, unpalatable, vile stuff.
“And here we have a political leader of a party who seems unable to exercise caution or even dignity when using social media and share stuff, because he shouldn’t have done that.”
Mr Polanski refused to apologise for sharing the post featuring a man wearing a tshirt with a guillotine on
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BBC / NEWSNIGHT
The commentator highlighted that many political figures on the Left believe it to be a “weakness” to apologise to anybody on the Right.
He explained: “Nigel Farage and Reform UK have complained to the police about this, we don’t know what the police are doing about it, but this is not the kind of behaviour you expect from a political leader.
“And what is interesting is he won’t apologise, because there’s something on the Left of the political spectrum where people can’t apologise to anyone who’s perceived on the Right, including Nigel Farage. They see it as a sign of weakness.”
Offering his verdict on Mr Polanski’s response, host Alex Armstrong argued the law “must be applied equally and fairly and appropriately to everybody”.
Mr Barkes told GB News that those on the Left see an apology to the Right as a ‘sign of weakness’
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GB NEWS
Mr Barkes concluded: “Well, the double standards are off the scale, aren’t they? And the problem is you have people on the Left of the political spectrum who they want to make the decision about what is right, what is wrong, what is deemed offensive and what is not offensive.
“And you’re absolutely right, Alex, if you go down the route of going, ‘well, actually that’s okay but that’s not okay’, you end up with another example of two-tier Britain.”
A Green Party spokesman has said: “He [Zack Polanski] 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.”