What was Kemi Badenoch thinking defending a convicted neo-Nazi?

5. august 2026 · 33m

UPDATE: Since publishing, the convicted antisemite Joshua Bonehill-Paine has withdrawn running as a Tory candidate, saying that if he carried on "other political parties will spend all their time focusing on my past rather than the work I'm doing today, or even fighting antisemitism in their own midst".

Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, released at statement saying; "While I am sad that Joshua feels he won't be given the space to explain his position and represent his community, I am glad he is going to work with me and the party on tackling radicalisation as part of our Culture and Integration commission."

This morning, Badenoch was in the slightly surreal position of trying to defend why she was encouraging a convicted Neo Nazi to stand as a Conservative councillor in Somerset. She and he say that he’s a reformed - not Reform- candidate who’s served his time (behind bars) and is now educating others on the ills of antisemitism. Can an abusive misogynist racist change in a decade? And should he be allowed to seek public office even if he has?

Later - the Thames Valley police chief has threatened to take the government to court over the early release of the killers of PC Andrew Harper. Is Prime Minister Burnham feeling his first political heat over this contentious policy of early release? And how does he transition from being the emotionally connected campaigner to being the one size fits all policy maker?