UK Conservatives defend picking former neo-Nazi as election candidate

News - South China Morning Post · Aug 5, 2026

The leader of Britain’s opposition Conservative Party defended the selection of a former neo-Nazi who had been jailed for hate crimes as a local election candidate, saying on Wednesday that he was rehabilitated and could help fight ‌antisemitism. Joshua Bonehill-Paine was convicted in 2015 of racially aggravated harassment of Luciana Berger, then a Labour member of parliament, and had also been imprisoned for stirring up hatred against a north London Jewish community. His selection as a...