Green Candidate In Makerfield By-Election Quits After 12 Hours

The Greens’ candidate for the Makerfield by-election has quit after less than 12 hours in the role.

The party said Chris Kennedy, a nurse and children’s safeguarding specialist, stood down for “personal and family reasons”.

The Greens are now looking for nominations for new candidates before the by-election on June 18.

Shortly after the news broke, The Times reported Kennedy had shared social media posts describing an attack on Jewish ambulances in north London as a “false flag” operation.

An Instagram video described the attack as “total bullshit to keep the false flag flying” and included an image where parts of the word “Jewish” had been blacked out.

Kennedy also shared a post from Hugh Anthony, who describes himself as a “proud ethno-nationalist”, which claimed the Golders Green terror attack made “no sense”.

A Green Party spokesperson told The Times that Kennedy “apologises for the offence caused” and had deleted the posts.

A party representative told the BBC the posts “don’t reflect the views of The Green Party”.

When announcing Kennedy’s decision to stand down, a Green spokesperson said: “We wish Chris the best and understand that family has to come first.

“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.

“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.”

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