Green party candidate for Makerfield byelection withdraws after nine hours

Key points

• The Green party’s candidate for the Makerfield byelection has withdrawn from the ballot within hours of being announced.
• Chris Kennedy was announced to be running in the seat for the Greens on Thursday morning, but nine hours later the party said he had dropped out, citing “personal and family reasons”.
• The Times reported it had approached Kennedy about a series of social media posts he had shared about an attack on Jewish ambulances in north London in April.
• An Instagram video shared by Kennedy described the arrests of two men over the incident as “total bullshit to keep the false flag flying”, the paper reported.
• He also reportedly 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 in March made “no sense”.