Former neo-Nazi who makes ‘AI slop’ videos picked as Tory council candidate

The Conservative Party has selected Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a convicted former neo-Nazi known for creating AI-generated videos mocking Labour and Reform politicians, as its candidate for the Crewkerne South council seat in Somerset. Bonehill-Paine was jailed in 2015 for inciting racial hatred over a flyer promoting a neo-Nazi rally in Golders Green, and has other convictions for malicious communications and harassment. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch defended the selection, citing his Home Office certification for counter-extremism work, while Reform leader Nigel Farage questioned it.

A convicted former neo-Nazi has been selected by the Conservatives to be their candidate for a council election in Somerset https://metro.co.uk/tag/somerset/ . Joshua Bonehill-Paine is now best known as the creator of the popular Crewkerne Gazette accounts on social media https://metro.co.uk/tag/social-media/ , which mock Labour and Reform politicians using AI-generated videos. But previously, he was jailed over a flyer he made and posted to promote a planned neo-Nazi rally in Golders Green, home to a large number of Jewish people. He described it as an ‘anti-Jewification event’ and said it would be ‘an absolute gas’, in a reference to the gas chambers used in the Holocaust. The 2015 conviction in for inciting racial hatred over the Golders Green event was one of several incidents in which the activist found himself on the wrong side of the law. He previously worked with the Conservatives after leaving college, but his early political career ended quickly when he used his Tory membership card to break into a police station, steal a uniform and assault officers. Make sense of the mad world of British politics Get analysis of the latest stories – including Andy Burnham's rise to Number 10 – direct to your inbox from Metro’s Senior Politics Reporter Craig Munro. Sign up here https://metro.co.uk/newsletters/alright-gov/?ito=factbox . A subsequent spell as a far-right internet troll led to a guilty plea for malicious communications in 2014 after he claimed a Leicester pub had banned British military personnel to avoid offending immigrants. The pub subsequently received threats from people saying they would set it on fire and assault the staff, forcing it to close temporarily. In 2016, Bonehill-Paine was found guilty of harassing the Jewish politician Luciana Berger, describing her as a ‘rodent’ and an ‘evil money-grabber’. Speaking to SomersetLive https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/ive-done-disgusting-things-stand-10809636 earlier this year, he said that reading the Bible and watching the film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas during his final spell in prison taught him that his ‘views about Jewish people had been totally wrong’. He said: ‘It was an incredibly emotional moment, and it really led me to evaluate where I was in my life. I had two paths. ‘Either I continued down the route I was on, or I reached out for help, and I chose the latter option.’ In a post on X responding to a Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/aug/03/former-neo-nazi-activist-selected-as-tory-candidate-for-somerset-council-election article about his past, Bonehill-Paine wrote: ‘For the past eight years, I have worked to combat antisemitism https://metro.co.uk/tag/anti-semitism/ and extremism. ‘I hold Home Office https://metro.co.uk/tag/home-office/ certification for my counter-extremism work https://metro.co.uk/tag/work/ , which has taken me across the country delivering training to police officers, probation services, schools, universities and many other organisations.’ Yesterday, he had confirmed his selection as the official Conservative candidate for Crewkerne South in Somerset. He wrote on X: ‘The Liberal Democrats https://metro.co.uk/tag/liberal-democrats/ have failed our roads, shops and SEND families. No more decline, no more excuses. Local people first ’ Sharing a tweet referencing Bonehill-Paine’s previous convictions, Reform leader Nigel Farage said: ‘Is this part of the “new generation” of Conservative candidates Kemi Badenoch is promising?’ Bonehill-Paine responded with a screenshot of an email from November last year, claiming he had passed vetting to become a Reform council candidate. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she is ‘not a person who would be recruiting neo-Nazis’. She continued: ‘Josh is someone who actually has been certified by the Home Office to train police officers on antisemitism and on countering extremism. ‘Yes, he is somebody who had been previously convicted, but he is someone who has shown contrition for his crimes, has been rehabilitated and is spending every day working to solve the very problem which he knew he had caused previously. ‘He’s going up and down the country training people, and the Conservative Party believes in second chances.’ In recent years, he has grown to prominence as the man behind the Crewkerne Gazette satirical social media accounts, which post realistic AI videos of prominent politicians including Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage. The clips often feature glowing depictions of Tories. One recent Dad’s Army parody featuring top Reform figures ends with shadow home secretary Chris Philp arriving on a scooter to say he ‘exposed the migrant crisis last week’. Bonehill-Paine’s accounts have almost 150,000 followers on Facebook and more than 50,000 on YouTube and Instagram. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk. For more stories like this, check our news page https://metro.co.uk/news/ . MORE: French warship ‘fires 17 live rounds’ near Tory MP in Channel https://metro.co.uk/2026/07/28/french-warship-fires-17-live-rounds-tory-mp-channel-29243099/?ico=more text links MORE: M5 drivers stuck in 12 miles of queues lasting two hours after police incident https://metro.co.uk/2026/07/17/m5-drivers-stuck-12-miles-queues-lasting-two-hours-police-incident-29162282/?ico=more text links MORE: Keir Starmer signs off with family tribute and 6-7 dance at emotional final PMQs https://metro.co.uk/2026/07/15/keir-starmer-signs-off-family-tribute-6-7-dance-emotional-final-pmqs-29143619/?ico=more text links