A former neo-Nazi activist who was convicted of harassing a Jewish MP has withdrawn as a Conservative election candidate after Kemi Badenoch offered him a role as an adviser to the party.<\/p>\n
Joshua Bonehill-Paine said on Wednesday that he had withdrawn from next year\u2019s local elections, and that the Conservative leader had instead asked him to become an adviser to her party\u2019s culture and integration commission, where he will specifically focus on how young men become radicalised.<\/p>\n
Badenoch, who has come under pressure<\/a> in the last 48 hours from individuals and organisations including the the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said she was \u201csad\u201d that Bonehill-Paine felt he \u201cwon\u2019t be given the space to explain his position and represent his community\u201d.<\/p>\n However, the handing of a plum job to him was immediately condemned by others including Luciana Berger, a Labour member of the House of Lords who was the target of a campaign of abuse by Bonehill-Paine when she was an MP.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 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,\u201d she said on X. \u201cIt is a privileged and influential national role. As a victim of this man\u2019s heinous crimes this appointment is an insult.\u201d<\/p>\n Both the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council had turned down the Tory party\u2019s offer of a meeting with the former neo-Nazi, who previously described himself as a \u201cnationalist, fascist, theorist and supporter of white rights\u201d and re-emerged in recent years as the creator of the Crewkerne Gazette, a satirical online account.<\/p>\n The JLC issued a short statement on Wednesday to welcome Bonehill-Paine\u2019s withdrawal as a Conservative candidate, but did not address his appointment as an adviser.<\/p>\n However, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Phil Rosenberg, told Times Radio it was \u201ca good thing\u201d that Bonehill-Paine would become an adviser to the culture and integration commission.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it is good to use the experiences of people who have themselves been down this track to counter radicalisation in other places,\u201d said Rosenberg, who said Bonehill-Pain was \u201cprobably the wrong fit\u201d to be a councillor.<\/p>\n Polling that was released by YouGov after news emerged that Bonehill-Paine was withdrawing found 57% of British voters thought his selection was unacceptable.<\/p>\n Reform voters were the most likely to think that he was an acceptable choice, at 36% \u2013 although they were outnumbered by the 44% who deemed the decision unacceptable. Among Tory voters, 28% thought the selection was acceptable \u2013 half the proportion who branded it unacceptable (57%).<\/p>\n Badenoch\u2019s move was also attacked by Reform UK, with a spokesperson saying that the Jewish community would be alarmed that Bonehill-Paine would have a say over national Conservative party policy.<\/p>\n Badenoch shared Bonehill-Paine\u2019s announcement on X that he was withdrawing as a Tory candidate in next year\u2019s elections, adding in her comments that he had been the target of a \u201cpiling on\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we are going to stop extremism and antisemitism, we are going to need help from those people who were part of the problem, but have now changed and are being part of the solution,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Bonehill-Paine had been selected to stand for election to Somerset council<\/a> next year in a new Crewkerne South district, but said in a post on X on Wednesday: \u201cRather than standing as a local council candidate, I believe that my experience is better used supporting Kemi Badenoch in her ongoing mission to combat the antisemitism and extremism that is dividing our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n