A former neo-Nazi who was jailed for harassing an MP has withdrawn as a Conservative councillor candidate.
Joshua Bonehill-Paine said that if he carried on with his campaign to be elected to Somerset Council, "other political parties will spend all their time focusing on my past rather than the work I'm doing today, or even fighting antisemitism in their own midst".
In 2016 he was convicted of racially harassing ex-Labour MP Luciana Berger, who is Jewish.
He was already serving a separate jail sentence for sharing antisemitic posts at the time.
Bonehill-Paine spent three years in prison from 2015 for posting the racist material ahead of a planned neo-Nazi rally but now says he has been rehabilitated.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch defended the decision to select him as a council candidate in Somerset, saying he is now "part of the fight against antisemetism".
After he quit as a candidate on Wednesday, Ms Badenoch said: “While I am sad that Joshua feels he won't be given the space to explain his position and represent his community, I am glad he is going to work with me and the party on tackling radicalisation as part of our culture and integration commission.
"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.
“Piling on them and trying to get them cancelled may be sport for other parties, but this is a different Conservative Party.”
Mr Bonehill-Paine said in a statement: "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.
"I have therefore informed the party of my decision to withdraw from next year's council election and Kemi has instead offered that I become an adviser to the Conservative Party’s Culture and Integration Commission, specifically focusing on how young men become radicalised."
The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council had earlier said they would meet the Tory Party to discuss his selection but declined to meet Bonehill-Paine himself.
In a joint statement, the two groups said: “The severity of Joshua Bonehill-Paine’s crimes targeting Luciana Berger and others mean that he still faces ongoing legal restrictions.
“Whilst we do believe in the possibility of rehabilitation, this should not in this case entail selection as a candidate for a major political party, and the impact of this decision on the victims ought to be a central consideration.”
Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who is Jewish, said no one should be pushed out of public life “permanently” and there should be “spaces for people to rehabilitate, no matter what they say or no matter how heinous what they do is”.
Asked about Bonehill-Paine’s selection, Mr Polanski told reporters at a press conference in Westminster on Wednesday: “I don’t know the circumstance of this individual councillor, so I’m going to be careful about wading in on a case that I don’t know the detail on, but I do believe in rehabilitation.
“I think someone can say something or even do something and make a mistake.
“Now, I think the important point is that we don’t just apologise and move on, there has to be a clear recognition of what they did wrong and what they’re going to do in the future to rectify it.
“I don’t believe anyone should be pushed out of public life permanently. I do believe that there has to be spaces for people to rehabilitate, no matter what they say or no matter how heinous what they do is.”
He said a councillor or MP would have to “re-earn trust”, adding: “It can’t just be a meaningless apology. It has to be a clear direction that the lessons are going to be learned.”
Baroness Berger, a former shadow cabinet minister who is now a member of the House of Lords, said Bonehill-Paine's harassment had "affected my life in lots of different ways”.
"I think that we need to have a bar when it comes to standing for public office,” she added.
"I strongly believe that this individual today falls very, very short of that."
Bonehill-Paine has described his past views as "indefensible".
In an article for the Conservative Home blog published on Wednesday, he added that he recognised his previous actions had "caused profound pain, particularly within the Jewish community".
"The recent announcement of my selection as the Conservative candidate for Crewkerne South on Somerset Council has been a stark reminder that those actions still cause hurt today," he wrote.
"That is entirely understandable, and I do not seek to diminish it."
