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Joshua Bonehill-Paine is a former Nazi. In 2015, he was jailed for racially aggravated harassment of Jewish Labour peer and former MP Baroness [Luciana] Berger.

So it's not surprising Kemi Badenoch's decision to approve his selection as a Conservative Party candidate for the Somerset Council elections has created a wave of protest.

Anger that has continued even after Bonehill-Paine withdrew, acknowledging a mistake that had brought distress to the Jewish community.

But that anger is misplaced. And as the row rumbles on, it has been attended by increasing hypocrisy from elements of the Labour left.

Bonehill-Paine's crimes were appalling. So appalling, that he spent three years in prison for them, during which he was forced to reflect upon his actions. As he acknowledged in a statement issued earlier this week, 'There is nothing I can say that will undo what I did, nor can I repair the harm caused by the actions of the reckless 21-year-old man I was then. I also understand entirely that Baroness Berger may never wish to accept my apology. That is her right, and I do not expect forgiveness. All I can do is take responsibility for what I did and demonstrate through my actions that I have changed'.

Berger did reject the apology. Which is her choice. No victim of such an attack is obliged to embrace their abuser, however heartfelt the contrition.

But many of her parliamentary colleagues have been falling over themselves to express their condemnation of Bonehill-Paine, Kemi Badenoch and the Tory Party in general. And rather than lashing out, they would be better advised to look closer to home.

Joshua Bonehill-Paine is not someone who has simply seen the error of his ways. He has actively reformed, and begun using his experiences on the far-Right to directly combat extremism. He has completed the Prevent deradicalisation programme – first introduced by Tony Blair's Labour government – and lectures schools, colleges, universities, police and probation professionals about his experiences.

Joshua Bonehill-Paine is a former Nazi. But he has actively reformed, and begun using his experiences on the far-Right to directly combat extremism, writes Dan Hodges

In 2015, he was jailed for racially aggravated harassment of Jewish Labour peer and former MP Baroness [Luciana] Berger

Such people are vital to the fight against anti-Semitism and other forms of racism.

I know this because I worked with reformed neo-fascists during my time at the anti-extremism group Hope Not Hate. In the Labour Party I also worked alongside a reformed fascist who went by the nickname 'Dave The Nazi', who was an adviser to a senior Labour politician.

At that time sensible people on the Left understood the importance of bringing the likes of Bonehill-Paine back into the mainstream political fold.

But over the past fortnight, it seems Labour have been more interested in scoring points. Or worse, using the row to brush over the party's own anti-Semitism.

In 2012 Margaret Burke was elected as a Labour councillor for Milton Keynes. She also just happened to be a former second in command of a local neo-Nazi group who dressed in Nazi uniforms, recruited gangs of youths to hand out racist leaflets and daubed buildings with swastikas.

After rejecting her Nazism, she joined the Animal Liberation Front and was jailed for vandalising a butcher's shop. Following her election the leader of the local Labour group stated, 'We had no doubt at all that her misdemeanours of 20 or 30 years ago were serious matters but I do not believe that somebody should be punished or penalised for what they did such a long time ago'.

At the time of Burke's election, the leader of the Labour Party was Ed Miliband, who this week met with representatives of the Jewish community to discuss Labour's 'evolving' stance on Israel.

Burke was also photographed on the campaign trail with Diane Abbott. The same Diane Abbott reinstated to the Labour Party two weeks ago having been suspended for minimising anti-Semitism experienced by Britain's Jewish community. Nor was Abbott alone. In May, Bradford Labour MP Naz Shah was selected by Keir Starmer to move his party's Loyal Address at the State Opening. The same Naz Shah who in 2016 was suspended from Labour after historic tweets of hers emerged which, she admitted, were anti-Semitic.

Like Bonehill-Paine, Labour's parliamentary and council candidates expressed genuine remorse over their actions and statements. But unlike Bonehill-Paine, their apologies were accepted.

So we are being dragged back to the days when the view of Labour MPs was that no racism could ever be excused or condoned, unless it originated within their own ranks. Those of Luciana Berger's colleagues who were queuing up to chastise Kemi Badenoch and Bonehill-Paine have conveniently short memories.

As recently as seven years ago they were campaigning for their party – which the EHRC determined had repeatedly breached the Equality Act in relation to the sort of anti-Semitism Baroness Berger herself faced – to enter government under Jeremy Corbyn, a leader who had also been accused of anti-Semitism.

In September 2018, Berger was escorted by police at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool following months of anti-Semitic abuse and death threats – with many Corbyn supporters claiming the protection was unnecessary.

Only a year later, Labour's then deputy leader, Tom Watson, was forced to investigate members of the Liverpool Wavertree branch – Berger's constituency – over what he said was 'bullying' behaviour towards her.

So again, it appears Labour believes in one statute of limitations on racism for itself, and another for everyone else.

There seem too to be similar double standards in relation to the Government's Prevent initiative. Last year Shabana Mahmood's Home Office began promoting Abdul Ahad, a former Islamic extremist with ties to the proscribed terror group Hizb ut Tahrir. Ahad, who has reformed, now works to tackle extremism in the Muslim community.

According to the blurb under the Home Office's slickly produced video: 'After breaking away, Abdul pivoted to help others avoid the same trap – joining the UK government's Prevent programme. Drawing on his own journey through indoctrination, he now engages with at-risk youth, challenging extremist rhetoric and rebuilding trust in vulnerable communities.'

It appears there will be no taxpayer-funded videos promoting the anti-extremism campaigning of Joshua Bonehill-Paine. He is clearly the wrong sort of reformed racist.

Shahid Butt, a man convicted of a plot to blow up the British consulate in Yemen in 1999 was free to stand in this year's local elections.

Former Reform MP James McMurdock, convicted of assaulting his then-girlfriend in 2006, was allowed to successfully run for the party in the 2024 general election.

Jeremy Corbyn openly referred to his 'friends in Hamas'. Yet Bonehill-Paine must apparently, according to Labour's recent converts to the crusade against anti-Semitism, be barred from public life.

This week Kemi Badenoch was urged to cut him loose. But refused. 'We should want racists to stop being racists. We should want anti-Semites to stop being anti-Semites. And when somebody genuinely turns over a new leaf, we should want that change to last', she said, before announcing he had been appointed her extremism adviser.

Good. The fight against racism is too important for petty party-political games. The Labour Party once recognised that. But after the anti-Semitism that blighted the Corbyn years, they will clearly have to learn that lesson all over again.