Former neo-Nazi activist withdraws as Conservative election candidate

Joshua Bonehill-Paine, who was convicted of harassing Jewish MP, says Badenoch has offered him advisory role instead • UK politics live – latest updates A former neo-Nazi activist who was convicted of harassing a Jewish MP has withdrawn as a Conservative election candidate after his selection prompted an outcry from Jewish groups and others. Joshua Bonehill-Paine said on Wednesday he had withdrawn from next year’s local elections, and that Kemi Badenoch had instead offered him a role as an advisor to her party’s culture and integration commission, specifically focusing on how young men become radicalised. Both the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council had turned down the Tory party’s offer of a meeting with Bonehill-Paine, 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 that has gained a cult following.

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