Greens leader unaware if election candidates who praised Oct 7 are standing

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay has admitted being unaware that candidates who praised the October 7 Hamas terror attack and who supported a pro-Palestinian protest taking place outside Auschwitz have been allowed to stand at the general election.

Appearing on Radio 4’s Today programme Ramsey was asked by presenter Justin Webb about the party’s efforts to tackle widespread claims of antisemitism amongst candidates.

Webb referred to Adam Pugh, the Green candidate for Lewisham North who on October 7th had appeared to praise the Hamas terror attacks on X writing;”There is no peace without freedom to resist.”

Asked if  Hugh was still allowed to stand on July 4, Ramsay said:”Justin, as I mentioned to you, we have 574 candidates across England and Wales, I can’t recite them all by name. I suspect you’d struggle to get any party leader to do that.”

Webb then mentioned the Green candidate for Birmingham Perry Barr, who had praised a pro-Palestinian demonstration that took place outside Auschwitz “of all places” adding Kefentse Dennis, was also the Green “equalities and diversity co-ordinator.”

The Green leader replied:”I can’t answer a question on every one of the 574 candidates across the party. What I can I tell you is the Green Party has a clear process where if questions are raised they are assessed by an. independent panel and action is taken where appropriate.”

He added the Greens had followed the recommendations of the equalities watchdog the EHRC on good practice over tackling antisemitism.

Ramsay revealed the party had prevented just four candidates originally selected from standing due to antisemitism claims.

He added:”The important thing here Justin is that we are standing a record number of candidates right across the country.”

Last week an investigation by the Times had shown that Pugh wrote on October 7 on Twitter/X that “there is no peace without freedom. Resist”. 

He separately posted the image of a Palestinian flag and wrote: “You don’t have to be neutral when it comes to apartheid, colonisation and genocide.”Three days later Pugh complained about the BBC’s “gutter journalism” on the war in Gaza and said: “They have a clear agenda to dehumanise Palestinians and paint Israel as the victims here.” On October 18, before the full-scale invasion of Gaza, he described the Israel Defence Forces as “genocidal maniacs”.

When news broke on October 12 that the Royal Navy was sending two vessels to the Mediterranean to support Israel Pugh wrote: “I hope they sink.” Last week, when three other candidates were accused of antisemitism, he wrote: “Either they haven’t discovered my tweets yet or I’m not being vocal enough.”

Dennis, the Green equalities and diversity co-ordinator, said rocket attacks launched before the October 7 massacre were an example of “Palestine defending itself as it is legally allowed to”.

On May 6, when pro-Palestinian demonstrators disrupted a remembrance march to honour the victims of Nazi atrocities at the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, Dennis wrote on X that “it’s because never again means never again”. He also called for a boycott of Israel in the days after the October 7 attacks.