The Conservative Party has found its solution to Britain’s extremism problem: hire someone who used to be the extremism problem. Joshua Bonehill-Paine, a former neo-Nazi activist, withdrew as a Tory election candidate this week—a move that triggered precisely zero alarms in the party leadership. Kemi Badenoch promptly announced he would advise the Conservatives on tackling extremism instead.
This is not a lateral move. This is a man who spent years promoting white nationalist ideology, now positioned as the party’s in-house expert on why extremism is bad. The logic is almost impressive: we can’t let him run for office, but we absolutely can let him shape policy on the thing he used to advocate for.
Why would any organization hire a reformed extremist to advise on extremism? Because it sounds reasonable in a press release. The narrative writes itself—redemption arc, lived experience, insider knowledge of radicalization pathways. None of that requires him to actually do anything. He doesn’t need to publish findings or testify before a committee. He just needs to exist in the job title while the party collects the optics.
The Conservatives have discovered the ultimate political hack: when your appointment is indefensible, call it a strategy. Badenoch’s statement didn’t apologize or explain; it simply asserted that experience matters. Experience at what, exactly, remains unclear. But the press release has already moved on to the next thing, and that’s all that matters.