Badenoch backs former neo-Nazi as Tory adviser

Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the UK's Conservative Party, has faced intense criticism after defending the candidacy of Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a former neo-Nazi who had hoped to stand as a Tory councillor in Somerset. Bonehill-Paine had served time in prison for waging a racist campaign against former Labour MP Luciana Berger, including an operation he called "Operation Filthy Jew Bitch." Despite widespread condemnation from across the political spectrum, Badenoch supported his candidacy, citing a belief in "second chances." When Bonehill-Paine withdrew his candidacy, Badenoch appointed him as an adviser on radicalisation, a move that has sparked further controversy.

Critics have pointed out inconsistencies in Badenoch's stance on second chances. In 2024, she had dismissed Labour minister Louise Haigh after it emerged Haigh had a decade-old fraud conviction for falsely reporting a stolen phone. Haigh's offence was far less serious than Bonehill-Paine's, who also has a conviction for assault. Badenoch's justification that Bonehill-Paine was only seeking a local platform to deal with parking and bins was seen as insulting to her existing councillors.

This row has revived wider concerns about Badenoch's strategy of moving the Conservative Party further to the right to win back voters from Reform UK. Days earlier, she had warned that ex-centrist MPs who support net-zero targets or oppose leaving the European Convention on Human Rights would not be allowed back into the parliamentary party. However, critics argue that to win an outright majority, the Tories need to win back seats lost to the Liberal Democrats, not just those taken by Reform. The One Nation group of moderate Conservatives now finds itself increasingly isolated under Badenoch's leadership.