Tory advisor role for ex neo-Nazi 'indefensible' says Barnet councillor

Green councillor Charli Thompson condemns Kemi Badenoch’s decision to support a man with multiple convictions for antisemitism, reports Joe Ives, Local Democracy Reporter

Barnet Green councillor Charli Thompson (left) and (right) Joshua Bonehill-Paine (credit Yeovil Conservatives)

Kemi Badenoch’s recent support for a former neo-Nazi is “completely indefensible” according to a Barnet Green Party councillor.

Earlier this month, Joshua Bonehill-Paine was selected to stand as a Conservative Party candidate for the 2027 Somerset Council elections.

Following a public outcry, it was announced he had withdrawn from the race – but not before national Tory leader Kemi Badenoch had offered him an advisory role.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Barnet’s only Green councillor, Charli Thompson, said: “I absolutely condemn Kemi Badenoch’s decision.”

She added: “Given the seriousness of Joshua Bonehill-Paine’s history of neo-Nazi activity and antisemitic harassment I find the decision not only to select him as a Conservative candidate, but then to offer him a national advisory role, completely indefensible.”

“Xenophobia in any form is abhorrent,” Cllr Thompson added.

In 2014, Bonehill-Paine was convicted of malicious communications over an anti-Islam hoax that led to death threats against the owners of a pub in Leicester.

In December 2015, he was jailed for three years and four months after being arrested for inciting racial hatred against Jews.

Then, in 2016, Bonehill-Paine was sentenced to an additional two years in jail for a campaign of online antisemitic abuse against Jewish Labour MP Luciana Berger.

He described Berger, who is now a member of the House of Lords, as “evil”, a “money-grabber” and as being responsible for the death of Jesus. He labelled his online campaign against the MP “Operation Filthy Jew Bitch”.

Earlier this month, council leader Barry Rawlings wrote an open letter to Barnet Conservative leader Peter Zinkin criticising Badenoch’s decision.

In his letter, Cllr Rawlings asked Cllr Zinkin: “Will you publicly urge Kemi Badenoch to ensure that Mr Bonehill-Paine is stood down from any official role within the Conservative Party immediately?

“Will you also remonstrate with her for saying that it is ‘sad’ that he is no longer a candidate, that you would not want him as a candidate in Barnet or anywhere in the UK and that he should not have been selected in the first place?”

The Labour leader added: “We live in a time of surging extremism on right and left, and it is critical that those of us who believe in a tolerant liberal society take a stand. I urge you to do so now.”

Cllr Rawlings also called on Cllr Zinkin to “urge” Badenoch to drop Bonehill-Paine as an adviser and show his disapproval at her expression of sadness that he was no longer a candidate.

In a response, Cllr Zinkin declined to condemn his party’s Westminster leader, saying: “As a member of the Jewish community and a councillor for Golders Green, I understand the concerns that many have expressed.”

Describing the reaction of the Jewish community, he said: “Whilst many have been upset by the decision, others understand the principle articulated by Kemi Badenoch that individuals who have genuinely changed and demonstrated remorse should not necessarily be denied any opportunity for rehabilitation.”

“There are genuine differences of opinion on this issue, and it would be wrong to suggest otherwise,” Cllr Zinkin added.

Amid the outcry earlier this month, Bonehill-Paine said he had reformed his views and has carried out counter-extremism work since being released from prison May 2018.

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