The Conservative Party has been plunged into an extraordinary row over the selection of a local election candidate whose past includes involvement with the far right, a conviction for racially aggravated harassment of a Jewish MP and a prison sentence for publishing antisemitic material.
Joshua Bonehill-Paine, who once described himself as a “nationalist, fascist, theorist and supporter of white rights”, has been selected as a Conservative candidate for the new Crewkerne South division of Somerset Council.
If the Conservative Party really has changed, as Kemi Badenoch repeatedly claims, voters in Crewkerne may reasonably ask what exactly it has changed into.
Bonehill-Paine was previously the founder and leader of the National British Resistance, a far-right organisation. His criminal convictions include assaulting a police officer, burglary of a police station and malicious communications.
In 2014, he was convicted over an anti-Islam hoax that resulted in death threats being directed at the owners of a pub in Leicester. In 2015, he was jailed for more than three years after posting antisemitic material online ahead of a planned neo-Nazi rally.
A year later, he was convicted of racially aggravated harassment involving Luciana Berger, the then Labour MP who is Jewish. The abuse directed at Berger included vile and deeply offensive references published on his blog.
Yet, despite this history, Bonehill-Paine is now seeking election under the Conservative banner.
The extraordinary twist is that the party apparently knew about his past.
Bonehill-Paine told the Guardian that the Conservative Party and its Yeovil branch were “fully aware” of his history. He said the local chairman had been a vocal supporter since he became a party member.
That raises a question that Kemi Badenoch cannot simply ignore: why was this considered acceptable?
The Conservatives have spent years attacking political opponents over alleged failures to confront antisemitism and extremism. Badenoch has repeatedly attempted to portray her party as a new force, cleansed of the failures and scandals of the past.
But selecting someone with Bonehill-Paine’s record inevitably invites accusations of breathtaking hypocrisy.
The controversy is also embarrassing because Bonehill-Paine is not some obscure figure who quietly wandered into local politics. He is the creator of the Crewkerne Gazette, an online satirical platform whose AI-generated videos have attracted a substantial following. The account has been notably hostile towards Labour and Reform UK while frequently treating Badenoch and the Conservatives more favourably.
Brilliant 🤣🤣🤣pic.twitter.com/KeQhHFjLX3
— dave lawrence 🐟🐟🐠 (@dave43law) August 3, 2026
Earlier this year, Conservative chief whip Rebecca Harris was criticised after reposting one of the account’s videos, depicting Badenoch and shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy as characters from Scarface, despite Bonehill-Paine’s identity subsequently being revealed.
Now the man behind the account has emerged as a Conservative candidate.
Reform UK has predictably seized on the controversy, accusing Badenoch of hypocrisy over antisemitism.
But the more uncomfortable question is not what Reform thinks. It is what the Conservative Party itself thinks.
A party is judged not merely by the speeches of its leader but by the people it chooses to represent it.
The Conservatives insist they are a “brand new party full of new people”.
In Crewkerne, critics will be asking whether this is really a new Conservative Party, or simply an old party willing to overlook an extraordinary past when it suits its political interests.
For a party claiming to have drawn a line under extremism, that is a question Kemi Badenoch now needs to answer.
