Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch is under growing pressure to drop a former antisemitic internet troll selected as a Conservative council candidate. Joshua Bonehill-Paine has been selected to fight the Crewkerne South ward in Somerset next May for the Tories.
Background of Offences
He was jailed in 2016 after he was convicted of racially aggravated harassment of Labour peer Baroness Berger, who is Jewish. He was previously jailed for producing an advert for a neo-Nazi rally illustrated with a picture of Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, which promised “an absolute gas”.
But he has since apologised for his past offending, and said he has now dedicated himself to “challenging the wave of hatred British Jews continue to face”.
Badenoch's Defence
Mrs Badenoch defended the selection on Wednesday, saying she believed he had been rehabilitated. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mrs Badenoch said: “I am extremely worried about antisemitism and what I feel is that if we can’t have the people who have previously been radicalised, who understand what went wrong and are part of the fight against antisemitism now, if we’re saying: ‘No, no, no, you’re untouchable,’ then how can we pretend that we believe in rehabilitation?”
But she suggested she would not allow him to stand as a parliamentary candidate. Mrs Badenoch said: “I’m not giving him a national platform, he is standing to be a councillor in Somerset … it is a local platform looking at parking, sorting out bins. I have much higher thresholds for what it takes to be a Conservative MP.”
Jewish Groups' Response
In a joint statement, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council said they had declined an invitation to meet Mr Bonehill-Paine, describing him as “a former neo-Nazi with criminal convictions for antisemitic hatred”. They 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. We have agreed to meet the Conservative Party to discuss their decision-making processes and to urge them to rescind this decision.”
