Green Party leader Zack Polanski has apologised after he was criticised by the head of the Metropolitan Police for sharing a post on social media criticising the police response to the Golders Green terror attack.
In a statement Mr Polanski said: “Everyone in leadership has a responsibility for lowering the temperature at a time of such tension, and I apologise for sharing a tweet in haste.
“Police responses to emergency situations such as these do need later reflection in the right forums, but I accept that social media is not the appropriate channel for doing so.”
He also said he had invited Sir Mark Rowley, the head of the Met, to meet to discuss the police response and “wider issues” raised in a letter he sent the Green leader on Thursday night.
Mr Polanski faced a backlash from within his own party after he shared a post criticising the arrest of the Golders Green attack suspect, which Sir Mark described as “inaccurate and misguided”.
Mr Polanski retweeted an X post accusing Met officers detaining the suspect of “repeatedly and violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head” when he was already incapacitated from being tasered.
In a rare intervention, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley hit out at Mr Polanski for sharing the post and later accused him of “undermining” the force.
Earlier on Friday former home secretary Grant Shapps told The Independent that Mr Polanski should apologise for what he called a “disgraceful intervention”.
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