THE HOME Office has contradicted Tory leader Kemi Badenoch’s claim that a former neonazi and now Conservative adviser had received government certification to give counter-extremism training.

A statement from the department said today it does not certify individuals to deliver training, contrary to Ms Badenoch’s comments about Joshua Bonehill-Paine, previously jailed for antisemitic abuse.

Mr Bonehill-Paine was given a role working for the Conservatives on tackling radicalisation after he withdrew from the Crewkerne South ward on Somerset Council next May following a huge backlash against his selection.

After he stepped down, Ms Badenoch said she was “sad” that Mr Bonehill-Paine “won’t be given the space to explain his position and represent his community.”

She previously insisted he had been rehabilitated since his convictions for harassing a Jewish politician and producing an advert for a neonazi rally.

Ms Badenoch told reporters earlier this week that Mr Bonehill-Paine had since “been certified by the Home Office to train police officers on antisemitism and on countering extremism.”

But in a statement, the department said: “The Home Office does not certify individuals to deliver training.

“We do provide funding to civil society organisations, who may use individuals to deliver training on preventing extremism that is commissioned by local authorities.”

Baroness Luciana Berger, who was targeted by Mr Bonehill-Paine in a campaign of antisemitic abuse in 2016, 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 was previously jailed for making an advert for a neonazi rally illustrated with a picture of concentration camp Auschwitz promising “an absolute gas.”