Twin trouble Culture It’s Hackney that needs Haifa, not the other way round Page 19
THE CHOSEN PAPER
Clash
Boy George quits West End over Israel song P12
From jailed Nazi to Tory candidate 6 August 2026
•
23 Av 5786
•
Issue No.1483
•
@JewishNewsUK
Fury as Badenoch backs former fascist convicted of antisemitic hate crimes as council candidate
The Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council have rejected the Conservative Party’s invitation to meet with a former neoNazi with criminal convictions for antisemitic hate, writes Lee Harpin. In a joint statement, the communal groups said: “The severity of Joshua BonehillPaine’s crimes targeting [former MP] Luciana Berger and others mean he still faces ongoing legal restrictions. “While we do believe in the possibility of rehabilitation, this should not in this case entail selection as a candidate for a major political party, and the impact of this decision on the victims ought to be a central consideration.” Instead, the JLC and Board said they have agreed to meet the Conservative Party to discuss their decision-making processes and to urge them to rescind this decision.” Earlier, Kemi Badenoch defended the decision to allow the former antisemitic internet troll to stand as a Conservative council candidate, after a Jewish Labour peer he harassed warned he should not “have any role in public life”. The Conservative leader
Joshua Bonehill-Paine was jailed for three years in 2015 for posting ‘vile’ antisemitic material online
said she believed BonehillPaine, who has been selected to fight the Crewkerne South ward in Somerset next May, had been rehabilitated. He was jailed in 2016 after he was convicted of racially aggravated harassment against Baroness Luciana Berger.
He wrote several blog posts about the peer, who was the MP for Liverpool Wavertree at the time, in which he described her as “an evil money-grabber” with a “deep-rooted hatred of men”. In one post, he claimed the number of Jewish Labour
MPs was a “problem”. He was previously jailed for producing an advert for a neoNazi rally illustrated with a picture of Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz which promised “an absolute gas”. Lady Berger told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “There’s a big difference between going back into society and teaching others possibly about what you did and why it was wrong to making the leap to standing for office. “There’s a massive distinction there and this is not just one-off hurty words. “This is a man that engaged and indulged in a sustained campaign, not just against me, but many others.” In a statement on X, Berger added: “I don’t believe this man should have any role in public life – because of both his racism and his view of women.” Badenoch told Today she understood Lady Berger’s position, but the Conservative leader added: “I think what Luciana is talking about is not rehabilitation, but forgiveness. “I can understand that she does not want to forgive this man. I might not if I had been his victim.”
STILL BLOWING STRONG AT 102 Second World War veteran Monty Goldstein blows out the candles on his cake during celebrations for his 102nd birthday with family and friends at South West Essex Reform Synagogue in Ilford. Monty attended AJEX’s first parade in 1945.