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Bonehill-Paine withdraws
Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a former neo-Nazi activist convicted of harassing Jewish MP Luciana Berger, withdrew as a Conservative election candidate after Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch offered him an adviser role to the party’s culture and integration commission.
“sad that Bonehill-Paine felt he “won’t be given the space to explain his position and represent his community””
The Guardian reported that Badenoch said she was “sad” that Bonehill-Paine felt he “won’t be given the space to explain his position and represent his community”.
Bonehill-Paine said he would step back from next year’s local elections and instead support Badenoch, writing that “Rather than standing as a local council candidate, I believe that my experience is better used supporting Kemi Badenoch”.
The BBC said the adviser position would focus on advising on how to prevent young men from being radicalised, and it described the role as unpaid, which the BBC understands.
In the same BBC account, Berger described the appointment as an “insult,” adding that making him a party adviser was “no better than allowing him to stand as a council candidate”.
Backlash and rival voices
The Guardian said Badenoch faced pressure in the last 48 hours from individuals and organisations including the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and it reported that Phil Rosenberg told Times Radio it was “a good thing” Bonehill-Paine would become an adviser to the culture and integration commission.
Rosenberg said he thought it was “good to use the experiences of people who have themselves been down this track to counter radicalisation in other places,” while also saying Bonehill-Pain was “probably the wrong fit” to be a councillor.
Luciana Berger, a Labour member of the House of Lords, condemned the decision in a post on X, saying “The decision to welcome this individual as an adviser to the Leader of the Opposition is no better than allowing him to stand as a council candidate,” and calling it “a privileged and influential national role.”
The BBC reported that UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said Bonehill-Payne “should never have been a candidate ... given the harassment that he visited on Luciana Berger, a colleague and a friend of mine”.
The BBC also said Reform UK hit out at Badenoch’s decision, with a spokesman describing it as “beggars belief” and “alarming news for the Jewish community in Britain”.
What happens next
The BBC said Bonehill-Paine had been offered the position as an anti-extremism adviser to the party’s Culture and Integration Commission after he withdrew his candidacy for the new Somerset Council seat of Crewkerne South.
““affected my life in lots of different ways because of the volume of the material”
It also reported that Bonehill-Paine spent three years in prison after he was jailed in 2015 for posting antisemitic material ahead of a planned neo-Nazi rally, and it said he was convicted of racially harassing then-Labour MP Luciana Berger in 2016.
In the Guardian’s account, Badenoch shared Bonehill-Paine’s announcement on X that he was withdrawing as a Tory candidate in next year’s elections, adding in her comments that he had been the target of a “piling on”.
The BBC said Berger attended court at the Old Bailey in London to give evidence in Bonehill-Paine’s trial, and it quoted her saying his harassment “affected my life in lots of different ways because of the volume of the material”.
Looking ahead, the BBC reported that the Conservative Party should answer “for why he was a candidate in the first place and also for any future activities he might be undertaking on behalf of the Conservative Party,” as Ed Miliband demanded.