A former neo-Nazi activist who was convicted of harassing a Jewish MP has withdrawn as a Conservative election candidate after Kemi Badenoch offered him a role as an adviser to the party.
Joshua Bonehill-Paine said on Wednesday that he had withdrawn from next year’s local elections, and that the Conservative leader had instead asked him to become an adviser to the party’s culture and integration commission, where he will specifically focus on how young men become radicalised.
Badenoch, who has come under pressure in the last 48 hours from individuals and organisations including the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said she was “sad” that Bonehill-Paine felt he “won’t be given the space to explain his position and represent his community”.
However, the handing of a plum job to him was immediately condemned by others including Luciana Berger, a Labour member of the House of Lords who was the target of a campaign of abuse by Bonehill-Paine when she was an MP.
“The decision to welcome this individual as an adviser to the Leader of the Opposition is no better than allowing him to stand as a council candidate,” she said on X. “It is a privileged and influential national role. As a victim of this man’s heinous crimes this appointment is an insult.”
Both the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) had turned down the Tory party’s offer of a meeting with the former neo-Nazi, who previously described himself as a “nationalist, fascist, theorist and supporter of white rights” and re-emerged in recent years as the creator of the Crewkerne Gazette, a satirical online account.
The JLC issued a short statement on Wednesday to welcome Bonehill-Paine’s withdrawal as a Conservative candidate, but did not address his appointment as an adviser.
However, the president of the Board of Deputies, Phil Rosenberg, told Times Radio it was “a good thing” that Bonehill-Paine would become an adviser to the culture and integration commission.
“I think it is good to use the experiences of people who have themselves been down this track to counter radicalisation in other places,” said Rosenberg, who added that Bonehill-Pain was “probably the wrong fit” to be a councillor.
Polling that was released by YouGov after news emerged that Bonehill-Paine was withdrawing found 57% of British voters thought his selection was unacceptable.
Reform voters were the most likely to think he was an acceptable choice, at 36% – although they were outnumbered by the 44% of their number who deemed the decision unacceptable.
Among Tory voters, 28% thought the selection was acceptable but twice that number judged it to be unacceptable (57%).
The Home Office also issued a statement on Wednesday contradicting a claim by Badenoch on Monday that Bonehill-Paine, 33, was “certified by the Home Office” to train police officers on antisemitism and countering extremism.
“The Home Office does not certify individuals to deliver training,” said a spokesperson, who added that the department funds Civil Society Organisations which may use individuals to deliver training. Bonehill-Paine is understood to have worked for a time with an organisation engaging former extremists on a path to rehabilitation.
Bridget Phillipson, the equalities minister and chair of the Labour party, said the affair “speaks volumes” about Badenoch’s judgment.
“It beggars belief that Kemi Badenoch was happy for a former neo-Nazi to stand in the first place. That she has gifted him a plum job further adds to that shame,” she added.
Badenoch’s move was also attacked by Reform UK, with a spokesperson saying the Jewish community would be alarmed that Bonehill-Paine would have a say over national Conservative party policy.
Badenoch shared Bonehill-Paine’s announcement on X that he was withdrawing as a Tory candidate in next year’s elections, adding in her comments that he had been the target of a “piling on”.
“If we are going to stop extremism and antisemitism, we are going to need help from those people who were part of the problem, but have now changed and are being part of the solution,” she said.
Bonehill-Paine had been selected to stand for election to Somerset council next year in a new Crewkerne South district, but said in a post on X on Wednesday: “Rather than standing as a local council candidate, I believe that my experience is better used supporting Kemi Badenoch in her ongoing mission to combat the antisemitism and extremism that is dividing our nation.”
He was jailed in 2015 for more than three years after posting “vile” antisemitic material online before a planned neo-Nazi rally.
In 2016, he was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment for abuse directed at Berger, who is Jewish, which included posting messages to his blog calling her a “rodent” and an “evil money-grabber”.
Berger had intervened earlier this week, telling Badenoch directly: “For the avoidance of doubt, I don’t believe this man should have *any* role in public life – because of both his racism and his view of women.”
