A former neo-Nazi activist with criminal convictions including for harassing a Jewish MP has been selected as a Conservative candidate for a local election in Somerset.
Joshua Bonehill-Paine, the creator of the “Crewkerne Gazette” series of satirical AI clips, is due to stand for election to Somerset council next year in a new Crewkerne South district. The selection was confirmed as part of the Conservatives’ candidate process for the council vote.
Selection For Somerset Council
Bonehill-Paine said he is an executive member of the Conservative Party’s Yeovil branch, where he worked as an events organiser, and that party officials are aware of his past. In an interview with The Guardian, he said the branch leadership had supported him after he joined the party.
He also said he had been backed by the branch chairman, who had advocated for him within the party.
Convictions And Past Statements
Bonehill-Paine was previously convicted of assaulting a police officer and of burglary of a police station. He was also jailed for posting antisemitic material online ahead of a planned neo-Nazi rally.
In 2014, he was convicted of malicious communications connected to an anti-Islam hoax that resulted in death threats being sent to the owners of a pub in Leicester.
In 2016, he was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment after abuse directed at Luciana Berger, a Jewish former Labour MP. The court found he posted messages on a blog describing Berger as a “rodent” and an “evil money-grabber”. He was also described as the founder and leader of the National British Resistance, a far-right group.
Bonehill-Paine has more recently re-emerged through the “Crewkerne Gazette” account, which he created and which has built a cult following. The series is critical of Labour and Reform UK, while its sketches have portrayed Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch in a favourable way.
Wider Party Tensions And Criticism
The Conservatives’ opponents on the right were quick to accuse the party of hypocrisy over antisemitism following his selection. A Reform UK spokesperson said Badenoch had claimed the party had changed and would present candidates from a “new generation”, adding that it was now clear what kind of candidates were being chosen.
The controversy over the “Crewkerne Gazette” content had included earlier criticism of Conservative chief whip Rebecca Harris after she reposted a video in which Badenoch and the shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy, were depicted as characters from the film “Scarface”. That was after Bonehill-Paine was revealed as the person behind the account.
Bonehill-Paine told The Guardian on Monday that his criminal convictions had since been spent and that he holds Home Office counter-extremism certifications. He said he had spoken alongside MPs about his past and had drawn attention to antisemitism faced by Jewish people in Britain.
The decision comes amid internal pressure on Badenoch. Last month, it emerged that prospective Conservative MPs would be required to align with her pledge to scrap the 2050 net zero target and leave the European Convention on Human Rights. At the weekend, Cody Butler resigned as chair of the One Nation Conservative Network, saying in a public letter that he no longer believed there was a place for one-nation conservatism in the party.
Badenoch told the BBC last week that she was leading “a brand new party full of new people” after reports that former cabinet minister Grant Shapps had been rejected as a prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate.
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4 August 2026
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