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A SINGLE mother living in poverty has stood down as a candidate for the Greens in the upcoming general election amid accusations of anti-semitism on social media.
Maddison Wheeldon was selected last month to stand as the Green Party candidate in Warrington North.
But she was told by the Green Party regional council that they would no longer support her candidacy after an article emerged in The Telegraph, framing her as her anti-semitic.
The article referred to social media posts relating to the war on Gaza.
But Ms Wheeldon maintains shortened excerpts were taken “completely out of context.”
Among the posts, Ms Wheeldon tweeted that Israel was “also responsible for October 7th,” by “setting the conditions, for nearly a century, that have traumatised a grief-stricken population of people,” but that “no deaths of innocents are ever okay.”
She wrote on Instagram: “Does Israel actually want to bring their hostages home?
“Or do they want to maximise the trauma to further legitimise the terrorism and mass murder of Palestinians in Gaza and record-breaking murders in the West Bank?”
Ms Wheeldon said the decision to withdraw support for her candidacy was made regionally, not nationally, and that her local party supported her throughout.
She said that no investigation or suspension followed. Ms Wheeldon has since left the Greens.
After she stepped down, Ms Wheeldon said that one person donated their £500 campaign pledge refund to a family for whom she is raising money to escape Gaza.
Struggling as a single mother in poverty motivated her to stand as a parliamentary candidate.
She said: “I’ve lost three stone from cutting down to one meal a day and I wanted to try and help and change things for my children.”
But she says she now is being “pushed out over something I’m not.”
She said that people have been finding her on Facebook, calling her a Nazi sympathiser and telling her that she’s being watched.
Ms Wheeldon said that she calls for the upholding of international law and that Hamas and Israeli leaders “should all be held equally accountable.”
She said: “I stand against all hate, whether it’s against Jewish people, whether it's against Muslim people, the hate you see against single mothers, the hate you see against people in poverty.”
“I stand against it all.”
She announced on X that she will stand as an independent candidate.
The Green Party was approached for comment.