Jewish leaders warned on Friday that the Greens are fielding candidates with views that ‘have no place in British politics’.
Former doctor Philip Brookes suggested victims of the terror attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023 ‘were not innocent’, while Tony Gair has defended Vladimir Putin and spread pro-Kremlin conspiracy theories.
The Greens have struggled to vet more than 4,500 candidates for council elections on May 7.
Dr Brookes wrote on Facebook that those who ‘steal somebody else’s home… are not a “civilian”. And damn sure you are not “innocent”‘.
The candidate for Manor Park, Newcastle, made the post on the second anniversary of the attacks.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said: ‘Someone who shares and likes posts that are hateful and threatening to Jews has no place in British politics.’
Dr Brookes’s comments were later deleted. Mr Gair, who is standing in Bede, South Tyneside, condemned the ousting of Ukraine’s Pro-Russian government in September 2014.
He also claimed Russian defector Sergei Skripal, whom Russia tried to poison in Salisbury in March 2018, had really been targeted by the then prime minister, Theresa May, to cover up for alleged failures of Brexit.
The Green Party said the views expressed by Dr Brookes and Mr Gair did not reflect its policy.
