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Berger accuses Badenoch of ignoring convicted neo-Nazi adviser’s misogyny and pornographic abuse
Jewish Labour peer writes 'How does Badenoch know that he has changed his views about women?'
Baroness Luciana Berger has accused Kemi Badenoch of ignoring the extreme misogyny and pornographic material produced by a convicted neo-Nazi, who she has now appointed as an adviser to the Conservative Party’s Culture and Integration Commission.
In an op-ed for The Times, Badenoch addressed the backlash surrounding the decision to initially allow Joshua Bonehill-Paine to stand as a Conservative council candidate.
After he stepped down amid an outcry, Badenoch said she was pleased to appoint him in his new role, focusing on advising on how to prevent young men from being radicalised.
But responding, Berger said that, despite Bonehill-Paine’s claim to have rejected his antisemitic views, neither he nor Badenoch have acknowledged or apologised for his history of targeting women with graphic abuse.
Bonehill-Paine has served multiple prison sentences. In 2016, he was convicted of racially aggravated harassment after a sustained antisemitic abuse campaign against Berger, then Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree. He had also been jailed for publishing antisemitic material online, including organising a protest against the Jewish community in Golders Green.
At his trial at the Old Bailey, evidence revealed that Bonehill-Paine published extensive graphic, misogynistic, and pornographic material targeting Berger. These included highly sexualised attacks and slurs meant to demean Berger as a woman in public life.
Responding to Badenoch’s article, Berger posted on X: “Badenoch says this man has since rejected the antisemitic beliefs that took him to prison.
“But there has been zero mention, acknowledgement or apology from either Badenoch or him for the extreme misogyny and pornographic material he created.
“How does Badenoch know that he has changed his views about women?”
“Badenoch makes one passing reference to the ‘victims.’ There were many. And I was one of them.
“Did Badenoch read the Judge’s sentencing remarks? In court, we heard the victim impact statements from people unable to testify, whose lives he had destroyed.”
Berger also raised concerns that Bonehill-Paine’s advisory role could bring him to Westminster, meaning she might “come face to face with him on the parliamentary estate.”
She referenced Bonehill-Paine’s recent move to producing “satirical” AI-generated videos about politicians, some of which feature questionable portrayals of female MPs.
Berger questioned whether Bonehill-Paine would have been appointed if not for his AI-generated meme platform, which has produced viral videos attacking Badenoch’s opponents. She added that “someone convicted of neo-Nazi misogynistic crimes is not suitable for public office less than a decade after his conviction.”
“Nor should he be given a national advisory role, bringing him even closer to power,” she added.
Pic PA
In her Times op-ed, Badenoch argued that those who seek to make up for past crimes deserve a second chance. “Nobody should minimise that history. But he served his sentence in jail and has since rejected the beliefs that took him there,” she wrote.
“He now works to explain the evils of antisemitism, training organisations on extremism, radicalisation, and how both take root. This does not oblige his victims to forgive him. Forgiveness is personal, and rehabilitation should never mean pretending the past did not happen.”
Badenoch, highlighting her own ambition to defeat antisemitism, noted Bonehill-Paine’s claim that he is now determined to make up for his past. “We should want racists to stop being racists. We should want antisemites to stop being antisemites.
“And when somebody genuinely turns over a new leaf, we should want that change to last.”
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