UK Conservatives defend selection of former neo-Nazi as a candidate

LONDON, Aug 5 - The leader of Britain's opposition Conservative Party defended the selection of a former neo-Nazi who had been jailed for hate crimes as a local election candidate, saying on Wednesday 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 south-west England drew condemnation from other parties and Jewish groups.

Badenoch 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 told the BBC, referring to his work with anti-radicalisation programme Prevent, adding she wanted to build a movement against antisemitism in Britain.

Antisemitism has been on the rise in Britain for years and many parties have had to drop candidates or expel politicians.

A Welsh parliament candidate for the right-wing populist Reform UK quit after he was photographed appearing to do a Nazi salute, while the Green Party suspended several candidates accused of antisemitism ahead of local elections in May.

The governing Labour Party was found by the equalities watchdog to have failed in its handling of antisemitism complaints when it was in opposition in 2020. The watchdog said in 2023 that it had taken sufficient steps to tackle the problem.

Badenoch partly defended Bonehill-Paine's selection by citing Labour's selection of a former Nazi at a local election in 2012.

Advocacy groups the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council declined an invitation to meet with Bonehill-Paine and urged the Conservatives to rescind their selection.

Berger, who now is a member of parliament's unelected upper House of Lords, said there was a "massive distinction" between Bonehill-Paine educating others about why what he did was wrong "to making the leap to standing for public office".

"This is not just one-off 'hurty words'," Berger told the BBC. "This is a man that engaged and indulged in a sustained campaign, not just against me, but (also) many others." REUTERS