Revealed: Green Party candidate’s Holocaust smear against Angela Rayner

The Green Party candidate for the Gorton and Denton by-election drew parallels between the atrocities of the Nazi Holocaust and Israel’s actions in Gaza in vile social media posts.

In one instance, above a photograph of Labour’s former deputy leader Angela Rayner lighting a candle for Holocaust Memorial Day, Green candidate Hannah Spencer wrote in a post on X: “‘Never again’ but still selling arms to Israel.”

Spencer, who is standing in the February 26th by-election for Zack Polanski’s party, also responded to a post on X  showing Rayner visiting the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Spencer retweeted a post that criticised Rayner’s visit as “performative” amid what it described as a “real ongoing genocide” in Gaza.

The original post, by Sharmen Rahman, had referenced Rayner’s visit to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Bergen-Belsen’s liberation by British forces, where millions of Jews and other victims of the Nazis perished.

It shows Rayner pictured with veterans involved in the liberation of Belsen.

Spencer, 34, who currently leads the Greens on Trafford Council, shared Rahman’s post in April last year.

Rahman was last year appointed the Greens national spokesperson for Equalities and Diversity.

A review of Spencer’s social media activity on X shows that she has become increasingly outspoken in her criticism of Israel over the war in Gaza, frequently accusing the Israeli Defence Forces of committing genocide in the territory.

Her posts in support of Palestinians and Green politicians’ statements on the issue have grown more frequent.

More recently she has mocked the government’s proscription of the Palestine Action group in a post on X, saying those who had failed to support the violent group should be known as “Palestine Inaction.”

Tellingly, Spencer did not post any comments in response to the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

In fact, her X feed contains no reference to Israel or Palestine until April 2024, when her criticism of the Israeli government began to intensify.

She subsequently called for an end to arms sales to Israel, and advocated for “Targeted Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against those supporting Israel’s occupation of Palestine.”

“This isn’t a ‘global issue’—it affects all of us,” Spencer wrote. “The horror must stop.”

A month later, Spencer announced she was boycotting the Eurovision Song Contest due to Israel’s participation.

“I actually miss the Eurovisions where we didn’t all have to sit through the performance of a country that turned water off to a population of 2 million people, consistently blocked aid and has been responsible for the deaths of 15,000 children,” she posted.

She confirmed that she would continue her boycott of Eurovision in 2025 for the same reason in another post on X.

Spencer frequently shares posts by Green MPs Caroline Lucas and Adrian Ramsay, urging the government to take stronger action over Israel.

In September last year, she wrote: “A week ago today, we as Green Party members voted at conference to call Israeli military operations in Gaza exactly what they are: Genocide.”

Her X history also shows her supporting Zack Polanski as he sought to become Green Party leader, regularly retweeting him as he faced criticism over his stance on Israel and his comments regarding antisemitism.

Spencer is also an active supporter of the Muslim Greens organisation, posting in support of the group and writing: “The work will not stop, until Palestine is free.”

She backed calls by the same organisation for Muslim councillors to resign en masse from Labour, describing it as “a party complicit in genocide.”

Just hours after last year’s Heaton Park Synagogue attack in Manchester, Spencer shared a Green Party post praising the “bravery of the Global Sumud Flotilla puts our cowardly Government to shame.”

Two hours later, at 1:45pm, Spencer then posted on X in response to the deadly Yom Kippur attack that had taken place that morning, writing: “Absolutely devastated for our Jewish community in Crumpsall, and for all of our Jewish communities across Greater Manchester and beyond.

“My thoughts are very much with those killed and injured, and the emergency services who responded. Our city region will always stand together.”

Her post was greeted with widespready criticism of the Polanski’s party’s stance on Israel, and in confronting the rise of antisemtism.

On Friday, Spencer was confirmed as the Greens candidate in next month’s by-election.

Thanking party members for her nomination, Spencer said: “Reform have chosen a candidate that will divide our community – he doesn’t even think many of the people who live and work here are even British. I will bring the people of Gorton and Denton together.”

The by-election on 26 February in the Greater Manchester constituency was triggered by the resignation of Andrew Gwynne on health grounds.

Polanski said of Spencer: “I’m a Mancunian and know when someone genuinely wants to roll up their sleeves and work for the community.

“Hannah is that person.”