Badenoch defends selection of former neo-Nazi who targeted Jewish MP as Tory election candidate

Kemi Badenoch has defended the selection of a former neo-Nazi whose convictions include harassing the Jewish former MP Luciana Berger, as a Tory Party local election candidate, saying he has been given a “second chance” after showing “contrition for his crimes.”

Joshua Bonehill-Paine – who was jailed for three years in 2015 after posting “vile” antisemitic material online ahead of a planned neo-Nazi rally – is standing for the Tories at elections to Somerset council next year, after telling the Guardian newspaper both the party and his local branch are “fully aware of my past.”

In December 2016, at an Old Bailey trial, he was convicted of racially aggravated assault after it emerged he had written five hate-filled blogs about Berger, which included slurs that she was “an evil money-grabber” and suggestions the number of Jewish Labour MPs was a “problem”.

Bonehill-Paine, who founded the far-right National British Resistance group, wrote the posts in support of his jailed neo-Nazi friend Garron Helm. Helm had admitted sending a picture on Twitter depicting Berger with a Holocaust-era Star of David on her forehead and the hashtag “Hitler was right.”

Bonehill-Paine also has a conviction for assaulting a police officer and burglary of a police station, and was convicted in 2014 of malicious communications over an anti-Islam hoax that led to death threats against the owners of a pub in Leicester.

Asked why he had now been selected as a candidate in Somerset’s Crewkerne South district, Badenoch said: “I want to be very clear, and I think people can look at me and know that I’m not a person who would be recruiting neo-Nazis.

“Josh is someone who actually has been certified by the Home Office to train police officers on antisemitism and on countering extremism.

“Yes, he is somebody who had been previously convicted, but he is someone who has shown contrition for his crimes, has been rehabilitated and is spending every day working to solve the very problem which he knew he had caused previously.

“He’s going up and down the country training people, and the Conservative Party believes in second chances.”

Badenoch added: “This is not just someone that we’ve picked up who’s a convicted criminal; this is somebody who is actively working to help communities, especially Jewish communities, and this is what I want to see.

“I want second chances for good people, for people who’ve learned their lessons, for people who are showing that they know what they did was wrong.

“What I don’t want to see is early release of people who have no contrition whatsoever, who don’t care, and who are going to be out on the streets actually harming people.”

Responding to the news, first reported by the Guardian, of Bonehill-Paine’s selection, a Jewish Labour Movement spokesperson said: “It is truly appalling that the Conservative Party has picked Joshua Bonehill-Paine as a council candidate. This is a former Neo-Nazi who was sent to prison for racially abusing a Jewish politician.”

Board of Deputies Vice President Karen Newman added:“It beggars belief that any party would select as a candidate a multiply convicted felon and the founder of a far-right group called National British Resistance. We have contacted the Conservative Party to set out our concerns and call on them to rescind his selection and review their vetting processes.”

The government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, Lord John Mann added:”This convicted criminal should have no platform from a Parliamentary Party. His antisemitism is as extreme as anyone I have ever seen.”

In a post on X, Bonehill-Paine attempted to stress that he was a reformed person writing:”I am a dedicated campaigner against antisemitism and have worked in counter-extremism for eight years. At a time when Jewish people in Britain face unprecedented hatred, my past gives me a unique ability to expose antisemitism for exactly what it is.”

Bonehill-Paine told the Guardian he was an executive member of the Tories’ Yeovil branch and worked as an events organiser.

“The branch and indeed party are fully aware of my past. Our chairman has been a vocal advocate and has supported me since I became a member of the party. I am very grateful for the support,” he said.

He stressed to the newspaper that his criminal convictions had been spent and that he had taken part in Home Office counter-extremism courses.

The former fascist said he now understood the antisemitism faced by Britain’s Jewish community.

In recent years, Bonehill-Paine had worked on the online publication Crewkerne Gazette, which has been supportive of Kemi Badenoch while poking fun at the Labour and Reform UK parties.

But Bonehill-Paine’s selection will now raise concerns about the Tory Party’s new processes under Badenoch.

Last week it emerged that former minister Grant Shapps, who is Jewish, had been rejected as a Tory parliamentary candidate. Badenoch told the BBC last week that she led “a brand new party full of new people” as she appeared to be completing a purge of One Nation-style Conservatives.

A Reform UK spokesperson was quick to criticise the selection of Bonehill-Paine, saying: “Kemi claims the Tories have changed and they will have a new generation of candidates – it’s now clear what calibre of candidates they will be. Kemi claims to support the fight against antisemitism yet selects a convicted antisemite Nazi as a candidate. The hypocrisy is breathtaking.”

But it emerged that the local Reform party in Yeovil had arranged to meet with Bonehill-Paine themselves to discuss him standing as a candidate. It is unclear whether the talks took place.

A Labour Party spokesperson said:”Kemi Badenoch is selecting a former neo-Nazi who was convicted for harassing a Jewish MP, while boasting about kicking out moderate Tories who back net zero. It’s a total disgrace.

“This tells you everything you need to know about the modern Conservative Party. They haven’t just failed to learn the lessons of their worst ever defeat – under Kemi Badenoch they’re becoming more extreme and more out of touch with Britain.”