Green Party Candidate for Makerfield Resigns Hours After Launch Over Antisemitic 'False Flag' Posts

MANCHESTER — The Green Party’s campaign for the upcoming Makerfield by-election has been thrown into chaos after its newly announced candidate stood down within nine hours of his launch following revelations that he shared antisemitic conspiracy theories online.

Chris Kennedy, a nurse and children’s safeguarding specialist, was unveiled on Thursday morning as the party's "passionate grassroots visionary" for the June 18 contest. However, by Thursday afternoon, Kennedy abruptly withdrew from the race. While the Green Party initially blamed "family and personal reasons," it later emerged that The Times had confronted Kennedy regarding a series of highly controversial social media posts.

According to reports, Kennedy shared an Instagram video that characterized the arson attack on Jewish community Hatzola ambulances in North London as a "false flag"—a term used to describe a staged event meant to manipulate public opinion. The video allegedly dismissed the subsequent police arrests of two suspects as "total bullshit to keep the false flag flying" and featured imagery where parts of the word "Jewish" were blacked out.

Furthermore, Kennedy shared content from Hugh Anthony, a prominent far-right ethnonationalist known for spreading viciously antisemitic rhetoric. The shared post argued that the emergency response to the Golders Green ambulance bombing made "no sense."

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A spokesperson for the Green Party quickly distanced the leadership from the rhetoric, stating:

"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."

Political Fallout and Campaign Urgency

The rapid collapse of Kennedy’s candidacy comes at a highly sensitive time for the Greens. Senior party figures have been locked in an intense internal debate over how aggressively to fight the Makerfield seat. The high-profile by-election features Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham running for Labour, but there are deep concerns within the progressive left that a strong Green campaign could split the vote and inadvertently hand the seat to Reform UK's candidate, Robert Kenyon.

Read more: Labour Routed in Birmingham as Reform UK Becomes Largest Party

Former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas had previously urged the party to step aside entirely to prevent a Reform victory, warning that it was time to "put country before party."

Despite the vetting failure and the loss of their candidate, Green leadership insisted they still intend to compete in the constituency, stating that "people in Makerfield deserve a real choice."

The party confirmed that nominations for a replacement candidate will open on Friday, with an emergency local selection meeting scheduled for Monday evening to rescue the campaign.