Kemi Badenoch has defended her party\u2019s decision to allow a former neo-Nazi who was jailed for subjecting a prominent Labour politician to antisemitic abuse to stand as a councillor.<\/p>\n
Badenoch said her party was not giving Joshua Bonehill-Paine, who is standing for election in Somerset<\/a>, a \u201cnational platform\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThis man is showing that he\u2019s more than contrite, he\u2019s actually working training Prevent officers, speaking in universities and schools,\u201d Badenoch told BBC\u2019s Radio 4 Today programme.<\/p>\n \u201cI am extremely worried about antisemitism and what I feel is that if we can\u2019t have the people who have previously been radicalised, who understand what went wrong and are part of the fight against antisemitism now, if we\u2019re saying: \u2018No, no, no, you\u2019re untouchable,\u2019 then how can we pretend that we believe in rehabilitation?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m someone who\u2019s quite sceptical about rehabilitation and I see this man as somebody who has been rehabilitated.\u201d<\/p>\n Luciana Berger, who was targeted by Bonehill-Paine<\/a> in a campaign of antisemitic abusein 2016, said he fell short of the bar for standing for public office. She said she lived today with the \u201cprofound and deep impacts\u201d of those events.<\/p>\n Luciana Berger speaking outside court in London in 2016 after Joshua Bonehill-Paine was found guilty. Photograph: Jonathan Brady\/PA<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a big difference between going back into society and teaching others possibly about what you did and why it was wrong, to making the leap to standing for public office,\u201d she told the BBC. \u201cI think there\u2019s a massive distinction there.\u201d<\/p>\n Badenoch suggested the convicted criminal would not be allowed to stand as an MP, but that his ambition to be a councillor was legitimate. \u201cI\u2019m not giving him a national platform, he is standing to be a councillor in Somerset \u2026 it is a local platform looking at parking, sorting out bins.<\/p>\n \u201cI have much higher thresholds for what it takes to be a Conservative MP.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to criticism from Labour MPs, Badenoch pointed out that Louise Haigh, a member of Andy Burnham\u2019s cabinet, had a fraud conviction.<\/p>\n Badenoch has previously criticised Haigh the Commons, saying: \u201cThe country needs conviction politicians, not politicians with convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n Bonehill-Paine, the creator of the viral Crewkerne Gazette series of AI clips<\/a>, is due to stand for election in a new Crewkerne South district next year.<\/p>\n He told the Guardian on Monday that he was an executive member of the Tories\u2019 Yeovil branch, working as an events organiser, and has carried out counter-extremism work since he was released from prison.<\/p>\n Bonehill-Paine also has a conviction for assaulting a police officer and burglary of a police station, and 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.<\/p>\n He was jailed in 2015<\/a> for more than three years after posting antisemitic material online before a planned neo-Nazi rally.<\/p>\n In 2016, he was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment for abuse directed at Berger, an MP at the time, which included posting messages to his blog calling her a \u201crodent\u201d and an \u201cevil money-grabber\u201d. He was also the founder and leader of the National British Resistance<\/a>, a far-right group.<\/p>\n Berger said it had been difficult to give evidence in court at the time as she was six months pregnant. She said she doesn\u2019t believe Bonehill-Paine\u2019s continued publication of AI videos are \u201ccommensurate with public life\u201d.<\/p>\n Crewkerne Gazette\u2019s recent AI videos include one of a half-naked Burnham titled \u201cAnother Speccy Twat\u201d and another of a rap battle between Burnham and Badenoch.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to be anywhere physically adjacent to this person if he was to surface,\u201d said Berger.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m deeply concerned also about his misogyny, and about the pornographic images that he created, and I think when you look at that in the round that is not an acceptable person to be in public life.\u201d<\/p>\n Crewkerne Gazette is a satirical online account that has gained a cult following. Its skits are critical of Labour and Reform UK, and have cast Badenoch in a favourable light.<\/p>\n