Ex neo-Nazi activist withdraws as Tory election candidate

A former neo-Nazi selected by the Conservatives to fight a council election next year has pulled out after a backlash against his candidacy.

Joshua Bonehill-Paine was jailed for posting antisemitic material ahead of a planned neo-Nazi rally and a year later he was also convicted of racially harassing then-Labour MP Luciana Berger.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch had defended the decision to select him as a candidate in Somerset, saying her party “believes in second chances”.

But Bonehill-Paine said he had now withdrawn his candidacy, adding that opposition parties would “spend all their time focusing on my past”.

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