Joshua Bonehill-Paine

27/08/2026

There’s a reason Reform are upping their establishment attacks on the Conservatives: PMQs returns next week.

The polls are narrowing, Kemi Badenoch is ready to take on Andy Burnham, and once that showdown begins, Reform risk being pushed right down the agenda.

25/08/2026

In 8 days, Andy Burnham faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs for the first time. He won’t know what’s hit him.

No gimmicks, no guitar performances, nowhere to hide. Every weakness will be on show, and Kemi won’t hold back.

10/08/2026

08/08/2026

✍️ NEW from Kemi Badenoch: We must believe offenders can be rehabilitated

“We need fewer double standards and instead higher standards in a system that is repeatedly failing to protect the public. We should be tough enough to stand by our beliefs, even when they are politically inconvenient, wise enough to recognise rehabilitation and consistent enough to apply the same principles to friend and foe. That is a harder politics than joining a pile-on. I think it is also a better one.”

Controversy about our council candidate raises the same question as Andy Burnham’s prisoner release scheme: what do punishment and rehabilitation actually mean?

05/08/2026

The last 24 hours have shown that a lot of people do not understand how terrible I feel about the things I did when I was much younger.

I know that my previous actions continue to cause pain in the Jewish community. I had thought that getting involved in my local council and working hard for my community was a good way to show how much I have changed and that I want to give something back.

I realise now that the fight against antisemitism is something that I actually need to do more of, I need to show the Jewish community how much I regret my previous actions and how hard I will work to fight to help destroy anti-semitism and rebuild trust.

I was 21 when antisemitism became my whole way of seeing the world. Because of my abhorrent behaviour I was convicted, imprisoned and deservedly punished. Since leaving prison, I have now spent years fighting antisemitism and extremism.

Rehabilitation does not erase what I did. But it does give me a sense of duty. While I cannot change my past, I can warn others away from the same destructive path. I know how this ideology works because I lived inside it.

I also know that if I stand as a council candidate, other political parties will spend all their time focusing on my past rather than the work I'm doing today, or even fighting antisemitism in their own midst.

Rather than standing as a local council candidate, I believe that my experience is better used supporting Kemi Badenoch in her ongoing mission to combat the antisemitism and extremism that is dividing our nation.

I have therefore informed the Party of my decision to withdraw from next year’s council election and Kemi has instead offered that I become an adviser to the Conservative Party’s Culture and Integration Commission, specifically focusing on how young men become radicalised.

I am of course sad that Jewish community groups have refused to meet me. My offer to talk still remains. I am on their side, and I am actively trying to help people susceptible to radicalisation and Jew hatred from heading down that path.

I love the Conservative Party. I believe in its values, and I believe that Kemi Badenoch is someone who believes in principles, believes in redemption and will stick her to do the right thing. I support the work the Party is doing to rebuild trust with the British people, and I intend on making a meaningful contribution to tackling extremism and promoting social cohesion.

05/08/2026

Kemi Badenoch is absolutely right: we need more people who are prepared to roll up their sleeves and serve their communities. If someone has made mistakes in the past, accepted responsibility, and genuinely turned their life around, they should be given the opportunity to earn a second chance through service.

It doesn’t matter who you are or the journey you’ve been on. I know that because I’ve been on one myself.

I want to hear from the people in Crewkerne and across Somerset who feel they’ve been left on the outside—those who believe they don’t have a voice, or who think a mistake or a criminal conviction means they’ll never be accepted again.

The local Liberal Democrats have repeatedly argued that, because I went to prison despite having rehabilitated myself and changed my life, I am not fit to represent my community. The local Greens have echoed those criticisms, despite their own well-publicised controversies over antisemitism.

I believe in rehabilitation. I believe people can change. And I believe our communities are stronger when we judge people by the lives they live today, not simply by the worst chapter of their past.

Let’s work together to give Somerset the fresh start it deserves and begin putting right the failures of the Liberal Democrat administration.

Thank you.

03/08/2026

BIG NEWS FOR CREWKERNE!

I am tremendously proud to announce that I have been selected as the Conservative candidate for Crewkerne South in the May 2027 Somerset Council elections.

Crewkerne is a fantastic town. Misterton is fantastic. Our villages are fantastic. The people are incredible. but the Liberal Democrats have let us down very badly!!

The roads are broken. The traffic is a disaster. The shops are empty. Houses are being built everywhere, local people are ignored, and our beautiful green spaces are disappearing.

And children with SEND? Failed by this council. Families are fighting for basic support while the politicians offer excuses. It is disgraceful, and it must end.

I will fight for local people first. More police. Better roads. Better buses. Better healthcare. Real support for SEND children. Protection for our countryside. Housing that works for local families, not endless development imposed on us.

I founded the The Crewkerne Gazette and put our town on the map. Now it is time to put Crewkerne first at County Hall.

No more weakness.
No more excuses.
No more decline.
No more being forgotten.

We are going to restore our town. We are going to bring back pride. We are going to win—and together, we can get Crewkerne, and Somerset working again! 💪

Soon I will be announcing a very special event in Crewkerne, and a chance for local people to have their say as together we fight for the future of our beautiful town.

28/07/2026

While Andy Burnham hides away in Number 10 North and Nigel Farage wrestles with a bin in Clacton, Kemi Badenoch is meeting victims and exposing the sickos and weirdos being released into our communities under Labour’s scandalous early-release scheme.

28/07/2026

Great to meet Katie Lam last night after her fantastic speech to a packed Weymouth Conservatives event at the Royal Dorset Yacht Club.

Myself and Cllr Connor Payne rounded off the evening with ci**rs and McDonald’s.

23/07/2026

Kemi Badenoch has exposed the hidden secret behind Andy Burnham’s malevolent plans for Britain, and it’s called TAX.

Speaking this morning, Kemi has outlined how working people, families and businesses will be left to pay for Manchesterism.