Why has Kemi Badenoch given a former neo-Nazi an advisory role? – The Latest

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1:04The optics are not great. The optics are, here is a former neo-Nazi welcome. This is a man who was talking about how in his late teens and early 20s, he was radicalised. And I see this man as somebody who has been rehabilitated. Kimmy Bidnock made a bit of a rod for her own back. She's got people now saying he wasn't fit to be a candidate. Why is he fit to be an advisor? From the Guardians today in Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy. half.

1:33In the headlines recently has been the name Joshua Bonehill-Payne, who was due to run in next year's local council elections for the Conservative Party. Ben Quinn, you are our political correspondent. Bonehill-Payne has now decided to step down because of revelations that He was a former neo-Nazi. Explain to us who he is and what those allegations were. Yeah, so he's a person who served prison time for a litany of offences, including racially harassing an MP, a Jewish MP. He's also somebody who's since tried to reinvent himself or has reinvented himself. and it's been as the creator of a viral video production called the Kruhkern Gazette.

2:24You may have seen it on Twitter or somewhere else. Some people would look at it essentially as AI. I'm blessed not to have. So he badges it as satire but it's basically using AI to ridicule and send up contemporary politics and politicians. But he's been back in the news this week after we reported earlier this week that he was selected as a Conservative Party candidate in the upcoming local elections in his area next year. Which proved enormously controversial because the MP in question, now a Labour peer, Luciana Berger, has been very vocal about the anti-Semitic abuse that she received. Kemi Badenoch saying that he no longer held these extremist views and that her party believed in second chances.

3:13but he has now stood down so that now looks like perhaps a bit of a misstep from Baden-Arch Yeah, I mean it's exactly the sort of place where she wouldn't have wanted to be in the early days of August, Parliament's in recess the Conservative Party have had this grid as all serious political parties have, they want to be talking about other things in her case it's law and order the government's early release of prisoners just as it happens, various things like that and she finds herself having to say things like, of course, I'm not recruiting neo-Nazis into the Conservative Party. So it hasn't been a good look.

3:50This story does go further because it's now being reported that Bonehill Payne has been hired as an advisor to Baden-Ock, reportedly an unpaid advisor. Why would she want to make that decision? What do we understand about it? Yeah, so he stepped down or announced that he was withdrawn as a candidate after quite a few days of pressure. And he said that Kimmy Bednock had offered him this role as an advisor to a commission which she has set up, which is looking at various aspects of society. And his role is going to be about advising on specifically the aspect of why and how young men become radicalized.

4:31But in many ways, that's basically just perpetuating this controversy because she's got people now saying he wasn't fit to be a candidate. Why is he fit to be an advisor? And also, we do need to know a bit more about him before we can be sure he really is rehabilitated. So it's a kind of mess at which the Conservative Party wouldn't want to be in this time of the year above all. Yes, especially when Reform UK are in such trouble. And actually, it would be a moment for the Conservative Party to be perhaps making some gains given the series of financial scandals surrounding reform top brass at the moment.

5:11In terms of the de-radicalisation programme, so part of that happened in prison when Bonehill Payne was in prison because of the anti-Semitic abuse at Luciano Berger. Do we know any more about how he has moved away from his extremist views? Yeah, I mean, he makes a series of claims. He claims he's been working in de-radicalization, claims he's been working in that space around countering extremism. And he wouldn't be the first former extremist to reinvent themselves and work in that sphere. There's a myriad of bodies, charities, various sort of people working in this area. and there's been various things people have been trying to fact check.

5:55Again, Kimmy Bittenock made a bit of a rod for her own back earlier when she said that he was certified by the Home Office to train police officers and other officials in contra-extremism and we were among the people who asked the Home Office and others about that and it subsequently generated a Home Office response which said that the Home Office doesn't certify individuals. so again another another sort of gotcha in some ways it's not where she wants to be and again it comes from somebody who in the case of kemi bedenock really has prided themselves on not making gaffes she literally does say things like i don't make gaffes i don't i don't misspeak but she's basically found the spotlight on herself again and it's at a time when we hear this phrase the chemi bounce as well.

6:46There's been a suggestion that she's managed to reinvent herself and actually put the Conservative Party in a good place. So again, we've got her judgment being questioned. So I was surprised to read some polling that came out this week conducted by YouGov that showed that 57 % of people thought his selection was unacceptable. But that's not a huge majority, is it? What did you make of that polling and what happens when you bore into those numbers? Yeah, I mean, of the other chunk, it's people who are broken into, do they believe it's somewhat acceptable or completely acceptable? And you find across all parties, including the Conservative Party voters, pretty much a majority in every case viewed it as unacceptable.

7:37In fact, it wasn't Conservative Party voters who were more likely to agree with the notion it was actually reform voters. There tended to be a larger number of them willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. And that's the problem. They found themselves at odds with the woman who would be prime minister. And also even many of her frontbenchers, the few who did put their head above the parapet to try and defend this position as well. So you mentioned that the Baden-Ock bounce in a sense that Kemi Baden-Ock is really starting to step into the role and find her confidence with some really strong performances at Prime Minister's questions, etc.

8:17How damaging would you say that this is for her within her party and perhaps more broadly? It is damaging because it's taking place in a vacuum of sorts. So we have, as we were talking about, tremendous pressure on reform, tremendous pressure, particularly on Nigel Farage. But this is a story which has led the headlines in some cases for a few days this week. Kimmy Bednock herself was on the Today programme where she was cornered about it as well. So it's got a lot of airtime. So it does damage her at a time when perhaps certainly Andy Burnham and Nigel Farage to some extent have had a bit of a lull in terms of the criticism of them.

9:00But also, it looks bad for Kimmy Bednock again in the context of how she's actually been treating some veteran centrist pro net zero members of the Conservative Party. So a few weeks ago, we learned that Gavin Barwell, who was a key aide to Theresa May, had the Conservative whip removed. Grant Chaps, holder of multiple ministerial positions, was blocked from standing again as a Conservative MP. So you also have this sort of stream of, in fact, younger Tories and maybe not so young ones as well of the positions taken by Kemi Bednock. And Kemi Bednock's view is in some cases been good riddance. So the optics are not great.

9:45The optics are here is a former neo-Nazi welcome. However, here are a series of respected veteran conservative foreign ministers unwelcome. Yeah, it's not a great set of optics. Ben, thank you so much for your time. You're welcome. That's it for today. My huge thanks again to Ben Quinn, our political correspondent. You can keep up with his reporting over at theguardian.com. Thanks for listening to this episode of The Latest. Today in Focus will be back in your feeds as usual tomorrow morning. The Latest will be back tomorrow night. This episode was produced by Bryony Moore and Leo Schick. The senior producer was Ryan Ramgobin.

10:26It was presented by me, Lucy Hoff.

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