Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has defended the selection of a former neo-Nazi activist with a number of criminal convictions, including one for harassing a Jewish MP, as a Conservative local election candidate.
Joshua Bonehill-Paine, who served time in jail, is due to stand for election to Somerset council next year in the newly created Crewkerne South district.
He once described himself as a “nationalist, fascist, theorist and supporter of white rights”.
But Badenoch praised the fact “he has shown contrition for his crimes”, and said her party believes in “second chances”.
She also highlighted the fact Bonehill-Paine, 33, has been certified by the Home Office to train police officers on antisemitism and on countering extremism.
The Board of Deputies said Bonehill-Paine’s selection by the Tories “beggars belief”.
In a statement on X, Board of Deputies Vice President Karen Newman said: “It beggars belief that any party would select as a candidate a multiply convicted felon and the founder of a far right group called British National 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.”
In a statement released to the JC, Bonehill-Paine described his crimes as “utterly indefensible”, said he now felt “shame” for his actions, and is “dedicated to challenging the hatred faced by British Jews”.
Joshua Bonehill-Paine (Joshua Bonehill-Paine)[Missing Credit]
In 2014, he was convicted of malicious communications over an anti-Islam hoax that led to death threats against the owners of a pub in Leicester.
The following year he was jailed for more than three years after posting “vile” antisemitic material online ahead of a planned neo-Nazi rally in Golders Green, north London.
He described it as an "anti-Jewification event" and said it would be "an absolute gas".
In 2016, he was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment for abuse directed at the then Labour MP Luciana Berger, who is now a Baroness, which included posting messages to his blog calling her a “rodent” and an “evil money-grabber”.
He was sentenced to a further two years in prison.
Luciana Berger speaks to supporters during a campaign event in Finchley, north London, on December 1, 2019. She was the local Liberal Democrat candidate at the 2019 general election, held on December 12. (Getty Images)Getty Images
He also has a conviction for assaulting a police officer and burglary.
Since his release from prison in 2018, Bonehill-Paine has re-emerged as the creator of The Crewkerne Gazette, a Facebook site which posts AI-generated satirical political videos and has built up a cult following.
Some of his videos have generated 100 million views.
In an interview earlier this year, he described how watching the film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas changed his antisemitc views, describing how a “sense of grief” came over him, and “shame that I had espoused the views that had been responsible for the slaughter of six million innocent Jewish people during the Holocaust”.
In his statement to the JC, Bonehill-Paine said: “Eight years ago, I made the decision to confront and combat antisemitism. I felt enormous grief and shame over the way I had treated Jewish people in this country.
“What I did was utterly indefensible, and there can be no excuses for it. Since then, I have come to know many people within the Jewish community and have dedicated myself to challenging the wave of hatred British Jews continue to face. That is a commitment I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
“Many years ago in Yeovil, a group of Orthodox Jews visited the town. I spoke with them, welcomed them and, before long, we were linking arms, dancing the hora and singing “Hava Nagila” together in the street. I have never forgotten that moment.
“It represented Britain as it should be: people from different backgrounds coming together in friendship and mutual respect. I long to see more moments like that again, but British Jews are currently being failed disgracefully.
“Those of us who once embraced antisemitism have a particular responsibility to expose and challenge it, because we know from experience what a false, poisonous and destructive ideology it is. Kemi Badenoch’s statement earlier reflects one of the main reasons I joined the Conservative Party
“It was a Conservative government that facilitated my rehabilitation while I was in prison. I firmly believe in giving people second chances when they have demonstrably changed, taken responsibility for their actions and can use their experiences to help make our country better.
In February, Bonehill-Paine was identifed by Channel 4 News as the man behind The Crewkerne Gazette. (Channel 4 News/Youtube/The Crewkerne Gazette)[Missing Credit]
Bonehill-Paine says he is an executive member of the Tories’ Yeovil branch.
He says his criminal convictions are “spent”, and has also made reference to having “various Home Office counter-extremism certifications”.
Speaking in Surrey on Tuesday, the Tory leader said she was “not a person who would be recruiting neo-Nazis”, and took an opportunity to attack the Labour government’s early prison release policy.
Badenoch said: “Yes, he is somebody who had been previously convicted, 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.
Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badenoch speaks during a press conference on early prison releases on July 28, 2026 in London. (Getty Images)Getty Images
“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 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.”
Liberal Democrat MP Adam Dance, whose Yeovil constituency includes Crewkerne, told the Press Association: “Residents deserve to feel confident in those seeking to represent them.
“Public service is built on trust, and elected representatives have a responsibility to bring communities together and uphold the highest standards in public life.”
Mr Dance added that “it is now for the Conservative Party to explain why it believes this candidate is fit to serve, and what this says about its approach to inclusivity and respect”.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage wrote: “Is this part of the ‘new generation’ of Conservative candidates Kemi Badenoch is promising?”
Bonehill-Paine, using his account Crewkerne Man, later wrote on social media: “It’s telling that those most angered by my selection as a local Conservative candidate are Reform.”
Bonehill-Paine insists that he has local Conservative support.
He told the Guardian: “The branch and indeed party are fully aware of my past.”
On Monday, he wrote on his Facebook page: “Crewkerne is a fantastic town. Misterton is fantastic.
“Our villages are fantastic. The people are incredible.
“But the Liberal Democrats have let us down very badly!!”
He added: “I founded the The Crewkerne Gazette and put our town on the map.
“Now it is time to put Crewkerne first at County Hall.”
He vowed to “restore” the town and “bring back pride”.
Voters will go to the polls on May 6 next year to elect 96 councillors to serve on Somerset Council for the next four years.
It is the first election to be held under the new boundaries following a consultation by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE).
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