UK Conservatives select former neo-Nazi activist to run in local council election

The UK’s Conservative Party has selected a former neo-Nazi activist convicted of harassing a Jewish lawmaker to run as its candidate in Somerset local council election, the Guardian reported Monday,

Joshua Bonehill-Paine, 33, has been convicted of multiple crimes, and used to refer to himself as a “nationalist, fascist, theorist and supporter of white rights,” the report said. He was convicted in 2014 of assaulting a police officer, according to the report, and the following year he went to jail for more than three years for posting antisemitic material in advance of a neo-Nazi rally.

The year after that, he was also found guilty of harassing Luciana Berger, who is Jewish and was then an MP for the Labour Party, calling her a “rodent” and an “evil money-grabber,” the Guardian reported.

He ran a group called the “National British Resistance.”

Bonehill-Paine, who now publishes satirical AI videos, told the outlet that he has served his time and has come clean about his past.

“The branch and indeed party are fully aware of my past. Our chairman has been a vocal advocate and has supported me since I became a member of the party. I am very grateful for the support,” he told the Guardian.

Bonehill-Paine has said he has owned up to his mistakes and is a different person after his time in prison.

“I regret my past and the mistakes that I have made. For me, I can’t move away from them because of the nature of the antisemitism that once ruled my life,” he said in a YouTube video earlier this year. In another video explaining his changed views and recent activism, he said: “I felt very angry at how I had treated the Jewish community in this country. I wanted to do something to rectify it.

“I went across the country to colleges, schools, university, working with the probation service, the police service, to try and help prevent other people from following in my footsteps,” he said.

???? NEW: A former neo-Nazi, Joshua Bonehill-Paine, has been selected as a Tory candidate for a Somerset council election

He runs the "AI slop" account Crewkerne Gazette and has convictions, including for harassing a Jewish MP pic.twitter.com/ksImiFxI8a

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) August 3, 2026

But his selection as a candidate drew condemnation from Reform UK, which is to the right of the Conservatives.

“Kemi claims the Tories have changed and they will have a new generation of candidates – it’s now clear what caliber of candidates they will be,” the party said, referring to Conservative Party leader and opposition chief Kemi Badenoch.

“Kemi claims to support the fight against antisemitism yet selects a convicted antisemite Nazi as a candidate. The hypocrisy is breathtaking,” the statement said.

The Conservative Party did not immediately comment on the Guardian report.

Meanwhile, Reform UK’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, is under investigation over a possible failure to declare an interest, a parliamentary watchdog said this week, three months after it opened an inquiry into the party’s leader.

Tice said on X that the investigation is over whether he should have declared the interest at the start of a debate on UK democracy and Israeli influence, and said it is based on a complaint by an “antisemitic anti-Israel lobby group.” Tice’s list of registered interests includes a trip to Israel last September.

I am being investigated for standing against antisemitism. You could not make it up.

Standards Commissioner is considering complaint by anti semitic anti Israel lobby group over whether I should have referenced my register of interests at start of…

— Richard Tice MP ???????? (@TiceRichard) August 3, 2026

The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards did not go into detail on the investigation, but said it relates to rule six of the parliamentary code of conduct, which states:

“Members [of parliament] must always be open and frank in declaring any relevant interest in any proceeding of the House or its Committees, and in any communications with Ministers, Members, public officials or public office holders.”

An investigation by the commissioner does not mean that rules have been broken.

The watchdog launched an investigation into the populist party’s leader, Nigel Farage, in May over a £5 million ($6.73 million) donation from a cryptocurrency billionaire, then paused the probe after Farage resigned his parliamentary seat in July.

When he quit and announced plans to stand again for his seat, Farage said the establishment was bent on discrediting him over accusations about his finances.

British police are also investigating at least £500,000 ($673,000) in donations to the Reform UK party, which Tice has said is part of a “politically motivated smear campaign.”

Reform UK had been leading in the polls for more than a year, until last week, when a number of polls suggested the governing Labour Party had caught up or even retaken the lead, reflecting a bounce for new Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.

There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.

As a Times of Israel reporter, I’m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit’s. But my colleagues and I can't do this alone. If you value work like this, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.

— Stav Levaton, military reporter

We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.

That’s why we started the Times of Israel – to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.

So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.

For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.

Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel