The Mumford & Sons co-founder who quit the band after receiving vitriolic abuse for supporting a conservative journalist has revealed he has family members who were murdered in Nazi concentration camps

In an essay published online, banjo player Winston Marshall said that leaving the band was necessary because his political views were causing the group too much trouble.  

Mr Marshall was labelled a “facist” by online trolls after tweeting praise for a book about far-left extremism written by the right-wing journalist Andy Ngo.

Despite holding “centrist” and “liberal” political views, the musician said he was pilloried by a “viral mob” accusing him of endorsing the far-right. 

In his essay, Mr Marshall highlighted the absurdity of being labelled a fascist when 13 of his family members were killed by the far-right during the Holocaust.

He said: “My Grandma, unlike her cousins, aunts and uncles, survived. She and I were close. My family knows the evils of fascism painfully well. To say the least. To call me ‘fascist’ was ludicrous beyond belief.”

Despite initially only taking a step back from the indie band, Mr Marshall wrote that now “the only way forward for me is to leave.”

He said: “I hope in distancing myself from them I am able to speak my mind without them suffering the consequences. I leave with love in my heart and I wish those three boys nothing but the best.”