Why is the Nigel Farage “too woke” for Kemi Badenoch?

The News Agents.

It's Mayless.

It's Lewis.

And really just as we were publishing our episode last night with almost perfect timing, the man at the center of our discussion, Joshua Bonehill-Paine, decided to withdraw from next year's local elections for the Conservative Party in a seat in Somerset, and told us within the same breath that the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, who had up until that point not just stood by him, but vocally defended him on air, had instead asked him to become an advisor to the party's Culture and Integration Commission.

He will specifically focus on how young men are becoming radicalized.

So in one sense, they have avoided this whole question of going to the voters and asking them to vote for [scoffs] a former convicted neo-Nazi.

On the other hand, she's now paying him directly.

This really, I think, uh, cuts to the, uh, heart of exactly Ke- Kemi Badenoch's justification for this in, in the first place, which is that yesterday, and it was, as we said, it was a very peculiar justification.

She basically said that this guy, convicted neo-Nazi, as we said on the show yesterday, not just that, but truly heinous series of, of incidents of harassment against Luciana Berger, the former Labour MP, uh, now Baroness.

We read out some of the sentencing remarks from the, from the judge yesterday.

I don't actually think that a lot of the commentary around this has really done what he did to her justice.

Um, uh, and really sort of, uh, you know, this wasn't just an example of profound racism and xenophobia, antisemitism.

It was the most crude and appalling misogyny what he, he subjected her to.

Uh, something which sh- she said she's still living with today.

Now, Kemi Badenoch said her justification was that, um, look, this is a guy who's reformed, he's been rehabilitated, he's a good person to have speaking about antisemitism, having be- being de-radicalized, all of which may be true.

But she also said that one of the justifications was, look, this is a guy who's just sorting out the bins and sorting out the parking.

Yes.

[laughs]

So let's not worry about it too much.

Making every counselor in the country feel great about their jobs.

Yeah, yeah, basic- yeah, quite.

Exactly.

You know, um, having neo-Nazis sorting out your parking, as long as they're efficient, they're famously efficient, that's fine.

This guy, then she said it would be more of a problem if he were a national politician.

I wouldn't allow him to, into the House of Commons.