Furious backlash forces Green leader Polanski to apologise for sharing criticism of Golders Green police… but he still insists there should be ‘reflection’

Green Party leader Zack Polanski has finally apologized for endorsing social media criticism of police who risked their lives to arrest a Golders Green terror suspect.

Mr. Polanski had been under pressure for more than 24 hours to apologize for sharing a social media post accusing officers of acting rudely during Wednesday’s incident.

He was summoned by Met Commissioner Mark Rowley and members of his own party following an incident in which two Jews were stabbed.

Today Prime Minister Keir Starmer added his own voice to the chorus of condemnation after meeting the officers involved and praising their actions.

in an interview to be published He said on BBC Radio 4’s Today program tomorrow that Polanski was ‘unfit to lead any political party’.

The Green Party leader said in a statement this afternoon: ‘Everyone in the leadership has a responsibility to lower the temperature at a time of such tension and I apologize for posting a hasty tweet.

‘Police responses to emergencies such as these need to be subsequently considered in the correct forums, but I accept that social media is not the appropriate channel to do this.

‘I invited Mark Rowley to meet with me to discuss the police response and the wider issues raised in his letter.’

Polanski retweeted a post suggesting the heroic cops who disarmed the Golders Green terrorist had a tough job

The Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley said today he will not allow ‘misinformed’ people to ‘undermine’ the heroic officers who brought down the Golders Green suspect.

Sir Mark today said he would not allow ‘misinformed’ people like Mr Polanski to ‘undermine’ the heroic officers who brought down the Golders Green suspect on Wednesday.

The head of Scotland Yard has revealed that he met with the police officers who arrested Essa Suleiman in North London and that they were ‘shaken’ because they feared he might have a bomb.

Defending their response as perfectly acceptable in the circumstances, and doubling down on his criticism of Polanski, he said: ‘Unless you’ve been in that moment where you’re scared stiff and you’re confronting somebody so dangerous, it’s hard to put yourself in that situation’.

Sir Mark wrote to Mr Polanski on Thursday, accusing him of using ‘misinformed’ rhetoric when he shared a post on X claiming two police officers had ‘violently kicked a mentally ill man in the head’.

“I need my officers to have the confidence to take on the most difficult and dangerous individuals,” the police chief said on television this morning.

This morning he said, ‘If a respected person steps into this recklessly and wants to undermine their trust then I will deal with it.’

Zarah Sultana, your left-wing party’s Coventry South MP, accused the police chief of being ‘brass-necked’ and added: ‘Mark Rowley’s job as commissioner is to serve the public, not to make political attacks.’

But Mr Polanski has come under fire from within his own party for supporting criticism of police who risked their lives to arrest the Golders Green terror suspect.

Welsh Greens leader Anthony Slaughter said it was “inappropriate” for Mr Polanski to share a post on X suggesting two police officers were guilty of “violently kicking a mentally ill man in the head”.

Former Greens deputy leader Shahrar Ali went further, telling people not to support the party in next Thursday’s local elections, as anger over the Green Party leader’s actions deepens.

‘Zack Polanski and the Green Party are trending for all the wrong reasons. ‘I have constantly warned about his divisive style of politics since he first ran for leadership last year,’ Mr Ali said.

It is the latest sign of unrest in Green ranks as Mr. Polanski’s leadership shifts leftward.

Last week MP Ellie Chowns publicly distanced herself from claims that Britain’s special relationship with Trump’s America was ‘more dangerous than it could possibly be’. [Vladimir] Putin is doing it in Ukraine’.

Speaking to the BBC today, Sir Keir said he had spoken to Met officers at the scene.

‘I’m not going to put words in their mouths, but I want everyone to imagine what it’s like,’ he said.

‘You are trying to arrest someone who has no respect for life and has previously attacked two people. We know that stun guns were fired. I know from my experience with the police that a stun gun only fires two shots and once you hit them there’s nothing left.

‘There is a man on the ground, he has a backpack. I don’t know what was going through those officers’ minds, but if I had been there, I would have thought he was going to blow something up. It’s going to blow me and everyone else up here.

‘Under the circumstances, I think you can understand why what they had in mind was that we should do what we can to neutralize this man.’

He added: ‘Now, when I see Zack Polanski come out and retweet or support a critique of this, I think it’s a shame… He’s unfit to lead any political party.’