The leader of Britain’s opposition Conservative Party defends the selection of a former neo-Nazi who had been jailed for hate crimes as a local election candidate, saying that he was rehabilitated and could help fight antisemitism.
Joshua Bonehill-Paine in 2015 was convicted of racially aggravated harassment of Luciana Berger, then a Labour member of parliament, and had also been imprisoned for stirring up hatred against a north London Jewish community.
His selection as a candidate for an election to Somerset council in southwest England drew condemnation from other parties and Jewish groups.
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative Party leader, said what he did was “appalling,” but he had disavowed his previous views and was fit to run for a local council, where he would be “looking at parking, sorting out bins.”
“It’s not a national platform… This man is showing that he’s more than contrite,” she tells the BBC, referring to his work with anti-radicalization program Prevent, adding she wants to build a movement against antisemitism in Britain.
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