Conservative Party official Kemi Badenoch faced protests for approving Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a former Nazi who was jailed in 2015 for racially aggravated harassment of Jewish Labour peer Baroness Luciana Berger, as a candidate for the Somerset Council elections. Bonehill-Paine has since withdrawn his candidacy and acknowledged the harm caused by his past actions.
Columnist Dan Hodges asserts that the anger directed at Badenoch and the Conservative Party is misplaced and highlights what he describes as hypocrisy from elements of the Labour left. Hodges points out that Bonehill-Paine has undergone a significant reform process, including completing the Prevent deradicalisation program and now lectures on combating extremism. He argues that such reformed individuals are crucial in the fight against antisemitism and racism.
Hodges draws parallels to past Labour Party figures, citing Margaret Burke, a former neo-Nazi group member elected as a Labour councillor in Milton Keynes in 2012. Burke had previously been jailed for vandalism after leaving her neo-Nazi affiliations. At the time of her election, the Labour leader stated that past misdemeanors should not penalize an individual indefinitely. Ed Miliband was the leader of the Labour Party at that time.
The article also mentions Diane Abbott, who was reinstated to the Labour Party after a suspension for minimizing antisemitism, and Bradford Labour MP Naz Shah, who was suspended in 2016 over antisemitic tweets before being selected by Keir Starmer to move the party's Loyal Address. Hodges suggests that Labour's apologies from these individuals were accepted, unlike Bonehill-Paine's, indicating a double standard.
Furthermore, the article references the government's Prevent initiative, noting the promotion of Abdul Ahad, a former Islamic extremist who now works to tackle extremism. Hodges questions whether Bonehill-Paine, as a "reformed racist," would receive similar public support.
Other examples cited of individuals allowed to stand for election despite past convictions include Shahid Butt, convicted of a plot to blow up the British consulate in Yemen, and former Reform MP James McMurdock, convicted of assault. The piece also recalls Jeremy Corbyn's past references to Hamas.
Badenoch defended her decision not to sever ties with Bonehill-Paine, stating, "We should want racists to stop being racists. We should want anti-Semites to stop being anti-Semites. And when somebody genuinely turns over a new leaf, we should want that change to last." She subsequently appointed him as her extremism adviser. Hodges concludes that the fight against racism is too important for political point-scoring and that the Labour Party needs to relearn this lesson, particularly in the wake of antisemitism allegations during the Corbyn era.