Badenoch Defends Tory Candidate Jailed for Antisemitic Abuse of Luciana Berger
Kemi Badenoch says Joshua Bonehill-Paine has been rehabilitated, while Jewish groups and the former MP he harassed urge the Conservatives to remove him from a Somerset council race.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has defended the party’s selection of Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a former far-right activist jailed for inciting racial hatred and for a campaign of antisemitic harassment against Luciana Berger, as a candidate in the Somerset Council elections.
Badenoch said the Conservatives believed in “second chances” for people who had shown contrition and changed their lives.
She said Bonehill-Paine had been rehabilitated and now worked to counter the extremism he once promoted, including through training on antisemitism and radicalisation.
The selection has prompted calls for his removal from Jewish organisations and from Berger, the former Labour MP whom he targeted.
Berger said the criminal case still haunted her, recalling the ordeal of giving evidence at the Old Bailey while six months pregnant.
“I don’t believe this man should have any role in public life,” she said, citing both his racism and his treatment of women.
Bonehill-Paine, 33, was jailed for more than three years in 2015 after publishing antisemitic material to promote a proposed “anti-Jewification” march in Golders Green, north London.
The publicity used an image of Auschwitz and described the event as “an absolute gas.” In 2016, he received a further two-year sentence for racially aggravated harassment of Berger.
His posts had described Berger, who is Jewish, as a “rodent” and an “evil money-grabber.” He also founded the far-right National British Resistance and has previous convictions for assaulting a police officer and burglary.
Bonehill-Paine was released in 2018. He has said prison forced him to confront the harm caused by his beliefs, and that he completed a voluntary intervention programme for people with extremist ideologies before working with Exit Hate, which supports people leaving far-right extremism.
The dispute has become a test of the Conservatives’ vetting and of Badenoch’s argument that rehabilitation can justify a return to public life.
Bonehill-Paine remains the party’s candidate for the Crewkerne South division unless the local or national Conservatives reverse the selection.
Badenoch said the Conservatives believed in “second chances” for people who had shown contrition and changed their lives.
She said Bonehill-Paine had been rehabilitated and now worked to counter the extremism he once promoted, including through training on antisemitism and radicalisation.
The selection has prompted calls for his removal from Jewish organisations and from Berger, the former Labour MP whom he targeted.
Berger said the criminal case still haunted her, recalling the ordeal of giving evidence at the Old Bailey while six months pregnant.
“I don’t believe this man should have any role in public life,” she said, citing both his racism and his treatment of women.
Bonehill-Paine, 33, was jailed for more than three years in 2015 after publishing antisemitic material to promote a proposed “anti-Jewification” march in Golders Green, north London.
The publicity used an image of Auschwitz and described the event as “an absolute gas.” In 2016, he received a further two-year sentence for racially aggravated harassment of Berger.
His posts had described Berger, who is Jewish, as a “rodent” and an “evil money-grabber.” He also founded the far-right National British Resistance and has previous convictions for assaulting a police officer and burglary.
Bonehill-Paine was released in 2018. He has said prison forced him to confront the harm caused by his beliefs, and that he completed a voluntary intervention programme for people with extremist ideologies before working with Exit Hate, which supports people leaving far-right extremism.
The dispute has become a test of the Conservatives’ vetting and of Badenoch’s argument that rehabilitation can justify a return to public life.
Bonehill-Paine remains the party’s candidate for the Crewkerne South division unless the local or national Conservatives reverse the selection.
