Ex-neo-Nazi Tory candidate withdraws, but lands counter-extremism role

Former neo-Nazi Joshua Bonehill-Paine has withdrawn as a Tory candidate for the 2027 council elections in Somerset. Far-right candidate are hardly a rarity in UK politics these days. However, reports claim he has now been given an internal Conservative Party role educating people about extremism.

Another Tory misstep

Bonehill-Paine was convicted in 2016 for harassing former Jewish Labour MP Luciana Berger.

The Guardian reported on 5 August:

Joshua Bonehill-Paine said on Wednesday that he had withdrawn from next year’s local elections, and that the Conservative leader had instead asked him to become an adviser to the party’s culture and integration commission, where he will specifically focus on how young men become radicalised.

The outlet added:

Badenoch, who has come under pressure in the last 48 hours from individuals and organisations including the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said she was “sad” that Bonehill-Paine felt he “won’t be given the space to explain his position and represent his community”.

Berger, who is now a baroness in the House of Lords, condemned the move on X:

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. It is a privileged and influential national role. As a victim of this man’s heinous crimes this appointment is an insult.

— Luciana Berger (@lucianaberger) August 5, 2026

The Guardian said:

Both the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) had turned down the Tory party’s offer of a meeting with the former neo-Nazi, who previously described himself as a “nationalist, fascist, theorist and supporter of white rights” and re-emerged in recent years as the creator of the Crewkerne Gazette, a satirical online account.

A ‘formidable record’ of hate offences

The BBC reported that Bonehill-Paine’s new role:

would focus on advising on how to prevent young men from being radicalised.

According to the corporation, Bonehill-Paine spent:

three years in prison after he was jailed in 2015 for posting antisemitic material ahead of a planned neo-Nazi rally.

The report added:

He was convicted of racially harassing then-Labour MP Berger the following year.

During sentencing in the 2016 case, Justice Spencer said Bonehill-Paine had enacted:

a cruel campaign of vile racist abuse on the Internet against a Jewish Labour Member of Parliament, Luciana Berger, simply because she is Jewish.

At the age of only 24 you have amassed a formidable record of offences of hate crime using the Internet.

Meanwhile Badenoch tried to spin the story in her favour, saying it was important to engage with reformed fascists:

If 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.

A former neo-Nazi seems like an odd choice for a candidate a political party led by a British-Nigerian woman. Or it may be that UK politics is at this stage so decayed and unhinged that we should stop being surprised by these sorts of events.

Either way, Bonehill-Paine has still ended up with an influential job in the Tory party. Just not quite the one he was after…

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

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