A FORMER neonazi activist jailed for antisemitic abuse has withdrawn as a Tory candidate in a council election following a huge backlash against his selection.

Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a former antisemite, was selected by the Conservatives to contest the Crewkerne South ward on Somerset Council next May.

But withdrawing his candidacy today, Mr Bonehill-Paine posted on X that he needed to “show the Jewish community how much I regret my previous actions.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she was “sad” that Mr Bonehill-Paine “won’t be given the space to explain his position and represent his community.”

She had previously defended his candidacy in the face of calls for him to stand down by Baroness Luciana Berger.

Baroness Berger was targeted by Mr Bonehill-Paine in a campaign of antisemitic abuse in 2016 and said he should have no role in public life.

He was found guilty of racially aggravated harassment and jailed after calling the Jewish former Labour MP a “rodent” and an “evil money-grabber” on his blog.

Mr Bonehill-Paine had previously been jailed for producing an advert for a neonazi rally illustrated with a picture of concentration camp Auschwitz which promised “an absolute gas.”

He has since apologised for his past offending and said he has dedicated himself to “challenging the wave of hatred British Jews continue to face.”

In her defence of his candidacy, Ms Badenoch said: “I see this man as somebody who has been rehabilitated.”

But she also implied that the party has lower selection standards for those standing as a local councillors.

She said: “I’m not giving him a national platform, he is standing to be a councillor in Somerset… it is a local platform looking at parking, sorting out bins.

“I have much higher thresholds for what it takes to be a Conservative MP.”

But after Mr Bonehill-Paine decided to stand down himself, she said that he would now work with the Conservatives on tackling radicalisation as part of the party’s culture and integration commission.

She said: “If we are going to stop extremism and antisemitism we are going to need help from those people who were part of the problem, but have now changed and are being part of the solution.

“Piling on them and trying to get them cancelled may be sport for other parties, but this is a different Conservative Party.”