Former MP Luciana Berger has urged Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch to drop Joshua Bonehill-Paine as an election candidate, saying he should have no role in public life because of his racism and his view of women. The row comes after Badenoch defended the party’s selection of Bonehill-Paine on Tuesday, saying she believed in second chances.
Berger, who is now a peer, wrote on social media:
“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.”
Addressing Badenoch directly in a thread of comments online, Berger said she was still haunted by the case and said the Conservative leader had got it very, very wrong.
“He was convicted for racial harassment for 5 specific blogs. But that wasn’t all – he’d published *reams* of deeply racist, misogynistic and pornographic material about me,”she said. Berger recalled being six months pregnant when she had to give evidence at the Old Bailey in what she described as two days of hell.
“I count myself lucky though. There were other victims whose lives he had totally destroyed,”she added. She said she felt sick reading commentators who were defending the selection.
Bonehill-Paine, the former neo-Nazi activist, is due to stand for election to Somerset council next year.
He told on Monday that he was an executive member of the Tories’ Yeovil branch, working as an events organiser, and has carried out counter-extremism work since he was released from prison.
Badenoch said on Tuesday that she was not recruiting neo-Nazis to the Conservative party and that Bonehill-Paine was certified by the Home Office to train police officers on antisemitism and on countering extremism.
“Yes, he is somebody who had been previously convicted for this, but he is someone who 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,”she added.
“He’s going up and down the country training people and the Conservative party believes in second chances.”
But the selection has drawn criticism from the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Labour and others, who contrasted Badenoch’s support for Bonehill-Paine with the freezing out of centrist Tories. Former Tory minister Gavin Barwell last month lost the whip after warnings from Badenoch that supporters of policies such as targets for net zero were no longer welcome in the party while former defence secretary from standing again for the party.
Karen Newman, vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, 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 National British 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.”
Bonehill-Paine re-emerged in recent years as the creator of the Crewkerne Gazette, a satirical online account, and has a conviction for assaulting a police officer and burglary of a police station. He was convicted in 2014 of malicious communications over an anti-Islam hoax that led to death threats against the owners of a pub in Leicester.
He served more than three years in prison after posting antisemitic material online ahead of a planned neo-Nazi rally. In 2016, he was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment of Berger, who is Jewish.
The abuse directed at her was cited by the Jewish Labour Movement, which described Bonehill-Paine’s selection by the Tories as appalling.
Bonehill-Paine has meanwhile hit back at Reform UK after its leader, Nigel Farage, joined in the criticism of the selection. An image of an email in which Reform thanked him for applying to be a party candidate and informed him that he had passed vetting checks was shared on X by Bonehill-Paine.
He also provided evidence indicating that the chair of Reform’s Yeovil branch had written to him as recently as June to ask if he would like to meet to discuss the prospect of standing for the party.
A Reform UK spokesperson said:
“There’s a reason why Mr Bonehill-Paine wasn’t selected as a Reform UK candidate. Meanwhile, while Kemi Badenoch claims to have a new generation of Tory candidates and says she supports the fight against antisemitism, she is selecting a convicted antisemite to stand for the Conservatives. The hypocrisy is breathtaking.”
Why is Bonehill-Paine’s candidacy controversial?
His candidacy is controversial because it involves a man previously jailed for racist and antisemitic abuse against Berger and with a history of far-right activity. His record includes convictions for malicious communications, assaulting a police officer, burglary of a police station and racially aggravated harassment.
Bonehill-Paine’s background has also reignited debate about how political parties vet candidates and how they balance rehabilitation against past conduct. The row has become a wider political argument about standards in public life, the meaning of second chances and the treatment of antisemitism within party politics.
Earlier coverage by has also reported on Bonehill-Paine’s selection as a Tory council candidate in Somerset and Badenoch’s argument that he deserves a second chance, but the current dispute centres on Berger’s renewed intervention and the Conservative leader’s defence of the decision.
What happened before and after the convictions?
Bonehill-Paine re-emerged in recent years as the creator of the Crewkerne Gazette, a satirical online account, and he says he has worked in counter-extremism since leaving prison. He told on Monday that he was an executive member of the Tories’ Yeovil branch and was working as an events organiser.
The timeline of his offending remains central to the criticism. In 2014, he was convicted of malicious communications over an anti-Islam hoax that resulted in death threats against the owners of a pub in Leicester. He later served more than three years in prison after posting antisemitic material online before a planned neo-Nazi rally. In 2016, he was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment of Berger.
Those events continue to shape how Jewish organisations and political opponents view his selection. The Jewish Labour Movement said the decision was appalling, while the Board of Deputies of British Jews called on the Conservatives to reverse the selection and review their vetting process.
How has the Conservative party responded?
The Conservatives have defended the choice by pointing to Bonehill-Paine’s claimed rehabilitation and his work on antisemitism and extremism. Badenoch said the Home Office had certified him to train police officers on those issues and argued that the party believes in second chances.
That defence has provoked accusations of hypocrisy from opponents who say the party is being lenient with a convicted antisemite while taking a harder line on some centrist or policy-minded Conservatives. Critics contrasted the treatment of Bonehill-Paine with recent action against former Tory minister Gavin Barwell, who last month lost the whip after warnings from Badenoch that supporters of policies such as targets for net zero were no longer welcome in the party.
The dispute has therefore moved beyond one candidate and into a broader argument about candidate standards, internal discipline and whether the Conservatives are applying consistent rules.
What is Reform UK saying?
Reform UK has also been drawn into the row after Nigel Farage joined the criticism of the selection. Bonehill-Paine responded by publishing an image of an email on X showing Reform thanking him for applying to be a candidate and saying he had passed vetting checks.
He also produced evidence suggesting that the chair of Reform’s Yeovil branch wrote to him as recently as June to ask whether he would like to meet to discuss standing for the party. Reform said there was a reason he was not selected as one of its candidates.
The Reform UK spokesperson said the episode showed a contradiction in Badenoch’s position.
“There’s a reason why Mr Bonehill-Paine wasn’t selected as a Reform UK candidate. Meanwhile, while Kemi Badenoch claims to have a new generation of Tory candidates and says she supports the fight against antisemitism, she is selecting a convicted antisemite to stand for the Conservatives. The hypocrisy is breathtaking.”
Key Facts
- Luciana Berger urged Kemi Badenoch to drop Joshua Bonehill-Paine as a Conservative candidate.
- Bonehill-Paine is due to stand for election to Somerset council next year.
- Badenoch said he had shown contrition, been rehabilitated and was an example of the Conservative party’s belief in second chances.
- Bonehill-Paine was convicted in 2014 of malicious communications and in 2016 of racially aggravated harassment of Berger.
- The Board of Deputies of British Jews, Labour and the Jewish Labour Movement criticised the selection.
