Kemi Badenoch has been slammed after a former neo-Nazi was selected as a council election candidate by the Tories.
Joshua Bonehill-Paine is due to stand for election to Somerset Council, despite previously describing himself as a “nationalist, fascist, theorist and supporter of white rights”.
According to The Guardian, he 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.
Bonehill-Paine – the creator of the online satirical publication the Crewkerne Gazette – was jailed for more than three years in 2015 after posting anti-semitic material online ahead of a planned neo-Nazi rally.
The following year, he was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment of the Jewish Labour MP Luciana Berger.
He was also the founder and leader of the National British Resistance, a far-right group.
Despite that, the Conservatives chose him as a council candidate in Crewkerne South.
Bonehill-Paine told The Guardian he was an executive member of the Tories’ Yeovil branch.
“The branch and indeed party are fully aware of my past,” he said. “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.”
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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.”
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Reform UK spokesperson said: “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 anti-semitism yet selects a convicted anti-semite Nazi as a candidate. The hypocrisy is breathtaking.”
Badenoch said: “So 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 to the Conservative Party.
“Joshua Bonehill-Paine is someone who actually has been certified by the Home Office to train police officers on anti-Semitism and on countering extremism.
“Yes, he is somebody who had been previously convicted for this, but he is someone 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.
“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 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.
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Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
