Ex-Neo-Nazi Activist to Stand as Tory Candidate After 'Second Chance'

A man who was jailed over his neo-Nazi activism will stand as a Tory candidate in council elections after being offered a "second chance" by the party. Joshua Bonehill-Paine spent three years in prison for posting antisemitic material ahead of a planned neo-Nazi rally and a year later he was also convicted of racially harassing then-Labour MP Luciana Berger. Bonehill-Paine has been selected to stand in the new Somerset Council seat of Crewkerne South in 2027. He said he wanted to "give back" to a community which had supported him. Reacting to the news on X, Berger said: "This case still haunts me." "I feel a bit sick reading well known commentators debate his selection today and say that 'these are precisely the people we need in public office'. She added: "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. "Kemi Badenoch you've got this very, very wrong." Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said he had "shown contrition for his crimes" but the Board of Deputies of British Jews said the move "beggars belief". Bonehill-Paine, who was behind the online satirical project The Crewkerne Gazette, also holds previous convictions for assaulting a police officer, burglary of a police station and malicious communications. Badenoch said: "He 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 is a convicted criminal - this is somebody who is actively working to help communities, especially Jewish communities." The content creator said his previous views were "indefensible". He said: "When I was first released from prison in 2018, I was supported by many of the people in my local community who understood that I had made some awful mistakes but was wanting to change my life around." Bonehill-Paine made the decision to reform his previous extremist views when he heard about the murder of MP Jo Cox during his prison sentence. "I felt an enormous sense of emotion - of grief and of anger that this lady had been murdered by a far-right extremist," he said. "This was a mother, a wife, who had been viciously murdered in cold blood and I started to question why it was that I was supporting a right-wing ideology." He undertook a de-radicalisation programme and now delivers counter-extremism sessions around the UK.