Greens probe election candidates ahead of deadline

The Green Party is still investigating a number of its election candidates over previous social media posts, hours before a nomination deadline.

Co-leader Adrian Ramsay told the BBC on Thursday that a "small number" were still being investigated.

It is understood this is still the case, although the party has not confirmed exactly how many are being looked at, or who they are.

Four of the party's candidates are not running after it launched an investigation into reports of antisemitic or extreme comments.

Mr Ramsay has confirmed four candidates are "no longer standing," without specifying whether they had been dropped or pulled out themselves.

It comes as The Times reports party officials were examining nearly 20 candidates over online material ahead of a 16.00 BST registration deadline.

The Greens are hoping to field candidates in every seat in England and Wales for the first time at the surprise general election called last month.

This requires the candidates to find 575 candidates in total, 103 more than at the last election in 2019. The Scottish Greens are a separate party.

The party has defended its vetting processes, but has faced accusations some of its candidates have expressed or shared antisemitic statements online.

The Greens have previously said they are working with Lord Mann, a former Labour MP and the government's advisor on antisemitism, "to better educate Green representatives about anti-Jewish racism".

The Board of Deputies of British Jews accused the Greens of taking too long to act on "such a clear problem".

"Serious parties need to take candidate selection seriously - the Greens need to see this as a wake-up call," the community group added.

On Thursday, Mr Ramsay defended the party's investigation process, saying it was independent of the party leadership and this was a "matter of good governance".

“Like any other party, we have candidates who are selected and end up not standing. That’s no different to anyone else," he added.

“If anyone has a situation where questions are raised about comments people have raised, those are properly investigated."

The Greens took a pro-ceasefire stance early on during the war in Gaza and are calling for tougher action against Israel, including boycotts and stopping UK arms sales to the Israeli military.

It has previously said it opposes "any efforts to exploit the ongoing tragedy in Israel-Palestine to foster division, intensify antisemitism, Islamophobia and other forms of racism".