英国保守党领导人凯米·巴德诺克为该党允许曾因反犹太主义虐待而入狱的约书亚·博尼希尔-佩恩以议员候选人身份参选萨默塞特郡进行了辩护。[1]博尼希尔-佩恩计划在克鲁克恩南选区竞选地方议员。[1]
巴德诺克声称博尼希尔-佩恩已获得改造并正从事反极端化工作。她表示："我没有给他国家平台，他正在竞选萨默塞特的议员...这是一个关于停车、垃圾分类的地方平台。"[1]
博尼希尔-佩恩于2015年因在计划新纳粹集会前在线发布反犹太材料被监禁超过三年。[1]此外，他于2016年因针对前工党议员卢西亚娜·贝格的种族仇恨骚扰被判有罪，当时贝格是议员并怀孕六个月。[1]
贝格对此表示反对。她指出："在公共生活中有很大的区别...我不想与这个人在物理上相邻，如果他出现的话。"[1]贝格强调，从事社会活动与参选公职存在重大差异。[1]
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has defended her party's decision to permit Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a former neo-Nazi activist previously imprisoned for antisemitic abuse, to run as a candidate for local councillor in Somerset's Crewkerne South ward.[1] Badenoch argued that Bonehill-Paine has reformed and is engaged in deradicalization work, emphasizing that his candidacy represents a local platform rather than a national one.[1] "I haven't given him a national platform, he's standing to be a councillor in Somerset... this is a local platform about parking, about bins," she stated.[1]
Bonehill-Paine was imprisoned for more than three years after being convicted in 2015 for posting antisemitic material online ahead of a planned neo-Nazi gathering.[1] He was subsequently found guilty in 2016 of racially motivated harassment targeting former Labour MP Luciana Berger, who was six months pregnant at the time.[1] Berger, one of his victims, has voiced strong opposition to his candidacy.[1] "There is a big distinction in public life... I don't want to be physically adjacent to this person if he were to be elected," she said.[1]