A man has pulled out of the running to be a Conservative councillor in Somerset after a backlash over his racist neo-Nazi past.

A neo-Nazi is a person who supports the ideas of the Nazi Party, the group that ruled Germany during World War Two and murdered around six million Jewish people in the Holocaust.

Joshua Bonehill-Paine was jailed for three years in 2015 for posting anti-Semitic (showing hatred towards Jewish people) material before a neo-Nazi rally. While in prison, he was also convicted of racially harassing a Jewish Labour MP called Luciana Berger.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch (pictured above) had defended Mr Bonehill-Paine, saying she “believes in second chances”. She said he has served his punishment and been rehabilitated (meaning he no longer holds his harmful beliefs).

Bonehill-Paine has now been offered an unpaid role with the Conservatives’ Cultural and Integration Commission instead, working as an advisor to prevent young men from spreading hate like he did.