A candidate who dropped out of the Makerfield by-election has apologised after reportedly sharing a claim that an attack on Jewish ambulances in north London were a “false flag”.
The Green Party’s Chris Kennedy was announced to be running in the seat on Thursday morning – but nine hours later the party confirmed he had dropped out, citing “personal and family reasons”.
According to The Times, an Instagram video shared by Mr Kennedy described the arrests of two men over the incident in March as “total bulls*** to keep the false flag flying”.
The paper said 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 made “no sense”.
View 2 ImagesThe arson attack happened in Golders Green on March 23(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Counter-terror police opened an investigation after the attack on the Hatzola volunteer ambulance corps.
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 party said its earlier statement about Mr Kennedy’s withdrawal still stood. It had earlier said of the nurse and children’s safeguarding specialist: “We wish Chris the best and understand that family has to come first.
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“As a party, we are re-opening 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.” The party said it would be campaigning to expose the risk of Reform, which it branded a “party who seek to divide our communities”.
Nominations for a replacement candidate have opened and a selection meeting is planned for Monday evening. The by-election was triggered when Labour former minister Josh Simons announced he was stepping down.
Andy Burnham is contesting the seat for Labour, while Robert Kenyon is standing for Reform.