The Green Party’s former candidate in the Makerfield by-election – who pulled out of the race just hours after he was announced – has apologised after it was reported he had shared a post calling an attack on Jewish ambulances in north London a “false flag”.
Chris Kennedy was announced to be running in the seat for the Greens on Thursday morning, but the party confirmed he had dropped out some nine hours later, citing “personal and family reasons”.
The Times later reported it had approached Mr Kennedy about a series of social media posts he had shared.
According to the newspaper, an Instagram video shared by Mr Kennedy described the arrests of two men over the ambulance attack as “total bullshit to keep the false flag flying”.
The paper says he also shared a post by a user named Hugh Anthony, a self-described “proud ethno-nationalist”, which said the response to the Golders Green arson attack in March made “no sense”.
Mr Anthony wrote: “How does someone manage to burn 3 ambulances, get the entire country in uproar, make the government put 264 more police units into the community, make the King become a patron of a charity, and increase the terror threat level in the UK, only to be put on bail? This makes no sense.”
A Green Party spokesperson said: “These posts don’t reflect the views of The Green Party.
“We have spoken to Chris about these posts, and he has now deleted them. He apologises for the offence caused.”
The Green Party said its earlier statement still stood on the withdrawal of Mr Kennedy, a nurse and children’s safeguarding specialist.
The party said previously: “We wish Chris the best and understand that family has to come first.
“As a party, we are reopening nominations now because we believe people in Makerfield deserve a real choice at this by-election, and the Green Party will be standing to offer exactly that.
“Across the country, more and more voters are turning away from the old parties and looking for politicians who will genuinely stand up for their communities.
“We will also be redoubling our efforts on campaigning to expose the risk of Reform, a party who seeks to divide our communities.
“This election has to be about how to make the super-rich pay their fair share, how we tackle the cost-of-living crisis with lower bills and affordable housing, and how we protect our public services and our green spaces.
“It has to be about offering Makerfield hope over hate.”
Nominations for a replacement candidate will open tomorrow and a selection meeting is planned for Monday evening.
It comes just weeks after Mr Polanski – who is the only current Jewish leader of a major political party in the UK – sparked outrage for sharing criticism of the police on social media after footage showed two officers repeatedly kicking the alleged Golders Green attacker in the head after he had been tasered.
Mr Polanski apologised for sharing the post in haste, but he insisted the police should not be above scrutiny.
The Greens are also facing accusations of antisemitism after Labour said it would release a document which they say exposes 25 Green Party local election candidates for having “disturbing views”.
The candidates were accused of “a raft of harrowing antisemitism, dangerous conspiracy theories and appalling comments supporting Hamas and Russia”.
The Green Party has been contacted for comment.
