Green Party leader Zack Polanski has suggested he retweeted “inaccurate” criticism of police officers responding to the Golders Green terror attack because he was “traumatised”.
But he also reignited his row with the head of the Metropolitan Police Sir Mark Rowley over the post, claiming Sir Mark’s open letter condemning Mr Polanski was inappropriate during an election campaign.
Mr Polanski apologised last week for sharing the post on X after he came under fire from Sir Mark and politicians across the political spectrum.
Sir Keir Starmer was among those who lined up to condemn Mr Polanski, calling his actions “disgraceful” and saying he was “not fit to lead any political party”.
The row began after 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.
Asked why he had shared the post on Sky News on Sunday, the Green Party leader said that he had found the attack “very traumatic, especially as a Jewish person”.
“And I also found the video that was circulating online traumatic too,” he added. “I accept, though, that conversation about that video needs to be had with the (police) commissioner rather than on X”.
Asked by the presenter Trevor Phillips “you made a mistake presumably because you were traumatized then?”, he replied: “Well, you generally apologise when you make mistakes… it should be something I take directly to the commissioner and I accept that.”
But he also said: “Open letters aren’t an appropriate way to do politics either in a local election… and I’ll be having that conversation with the commissioner.”
On the same programme, transport secretary Heidi Alexander called his actions “abhorrent”.
In a rare intervention last week, Sir Mark hit out at Mr Polanski for sharing the “inaccurate” post and later accused him of “undermining” the force.
Mr Polanski also faced a significant backlash within his own party.
The Green Party’s Welsh leader, Anthony Slaughter, told LBC that while he had not seen the tweet: “It does seem, from what I’ve read, [it] was inappropriate to retweet.”
The party’s deputy leader Rachel Millward, who was also challenged about the post, told the BBC’s Question Time programme on Thursday that she was “extremely grateful” for the emergency service response.
“I’m sure it was beyond terrifying, and these people are brave, well trained in what they do, I’m sure they did a brilliant job,” she said.
Sir Mark said in his letter to Mr Polanski that he was “disappointed” in the politician’s decision to share the post, warning that it could have a “chilling effect”.
He said officers were “nothing short of extraordinary”, adding: “Without their efforts to stop him I dread to think what the outcome could have been.”
