The Green Party’s former candidate in the Makerfield by-election, Chris Kennedy, has apologised after it was reported that he shared a social media post describing an attack on Jewish ambulances in north London as a “false flag”. Kennedy was announced as the party’s candidate on Thursday morning but withdrew just nine hours later, citing “personal and family reasons”.
Social media controversy
According to The Times, Kennedy shared an Instagram video in which he labelled the arrests of two men over the ambulance attack as “total bullshit to keep the false flag flying”. He also reportedly shared a post by Hugh Anthony, a self-described “proud ethno-nationalist”, which questioned the response to the Golders Green arson attack in March. Anthony’s post stated: “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.”
Party response
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 reiterated that its earlier statement on Kennedy’s withdrawal still stood, describing him as a nurse and children’s safeguarding specialist. The party added: “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.”
Broader context
The incident comes weeks after Green Party leader Zack Polanski, the only current Jewish leader of a major UK political party, faced backlash for sharing criticism of the police following footage of officers kicking the alleged Golders Green attacker. Polanski apologised but insisted police should not be above scrutiny. Meanwhile, the Greens are also facing accusations of antisemitism after Labour said it would release a document exposing 25 Green Party local election candidates for having “disturbing views”, including “a raft of harrowing antisemitism, dangerous conspiracy theories and appalling comments supporting Hamas and Russia”.
