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Luciana Berger says Joshua Bonehill-Paine should have no role in public life because of ‘his racism and his view of women’ A former MP has urged the Tory leader to drop an election candidate who was previously jailed for a campaign of antisemitic abuse against her. Kemi Badenoch on Tuesday defended the Conservative party’s selection of Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a former neo-Nazi, insisting she believes in “second chances”. Writing on social media, Luciana Berger , who is now a peer, said: “For the avoidance of doubt, I don’t believe this man should have *any* role in public life – because of both his racism and his view of women.” Directly addressing the Conservative leader in thread of comments online, Berger said she was still “haunted” by the case and told Badenoch that she had “got this very, very wrong”. “He was convicted for racial harassment for 5 specific blogs. But that wasn’t all – he’d published *reams* of deeply racist, misogynistic and pornographic material about me,” said Berger. The hypocrisy is breathtaking.”.
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Former Tory minister Gavin Barwell last month lost the whip after warnings from Badenoch that supporters of policies such as targets for net zero were no longer welcome in the party while former defence secretary Grant Shapps was recently blocked from standing again for the party.
