Tories offer Jewish groups meeting with ex neo-Nazi activist candidate

The Conservatives have offered Jewish groups a meeting with their council election candidate, Joshua Bonehill-Paine, who spent time in prison for neo-Nazi activism.

The party has been criticised over the decision to select him to stand for a seat on Somerset Council next year, but Kemi Badenoch has said she is standing by Bonehill-Paine because she wants to give him a second chance.

He has described his past views as "indefensible" and now speaks out against extremism.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews has called on the Conservatives to ditch him as a candidate, saying the selection "beggars belief".

It is understood the party has now offered the Board, as well as the Jewish Leadership Council and the Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, a meeting with Bonehill-Pain so they can discuss their concerns directly.

When Bonehill-Paine's selection was announced, Karen Newman, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews - the largest body representing Jews in the UK - said that the board had contacted the Conservatives to "set out our concerns and call on them to rescind his selection and review their vetting processes."

Bonehill-Paine spent three years in prison for posting antisemitic material ahead of a planned neo-Nazi rally. A year later he was convicted of racially harassing then-Labour MP Luciana Berger . Berger is now a member of the House of Lords.

Bonehill-Paine also holds previous convictions for assaulting a police officer, burglary of a police station and malicious communications.