Green Party’s Makerfield by-election candidate quits after Jewish ambulance attack posts
The Greens have apologised for Chris Kennedy’s posts and will select a new by-election candidate on Monday
The Greens’ candidate in the Makerfield by-election, Chris Kennedy, has quit less than a day after the party announced he was standing.
The party said that Kennedy had withdrawn from the race for “family reasons”.
However, he quit after it emerged he had shared posts questioning an antisemitic arson attack on a Jewish ambulance.
On 23 March this year, four Hatzola ambulances were set on fire in Golders Green, North London.
A pro-Iranian Islamist group, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Times reported that Kennedy had shared a video on Instagram which described the arrests of two men in connection with the arson attacks as “total bullshit to keep the false flag flying”.
The ex-Green candidate also reportedly shared a post by a user named Hugh Anthony, a self-described “proud ethno-nationalist”. The post said the response to the Golders Green arson attack in March made “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.”
Nick Lowles, CEO of Hope not Hate, wrote on X: “The Green Party needs to be honest about the reasons their Makerfield candidate has stood down.
“Rather than taking the opportunity to call out his conspiratorial nonsense, pushing the ‘personal reasons’ line makes them complicit in a cover-up.”
He added: “Chris Kennedy stood down after his social media posts claiming the attack on ambulances in Golders Green was a false flag operation were exposed.”
The Green Party will reopen nominations for a replacement candidate today, and hold a selection meeting on Monday evening.
Meanwhile, Reform UK is under fire for selecting Robert Kenyon as their by-election candidate, despite him having shared posts online in support of the far-right, as well as conspiracy theories and ‘creepy’ comments about women.
Reform has said it has no plans to investigate Kenyon’s social media activity or take any action against him.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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