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Claudia Webbe: No sign of giving up yet

HARSEV BAINS of the Indian Workers' Association puts into context the recent conviction of Leicester East MP Claudia Webbe, who is intending to appeal the verdict

LEICESTER has often been described as one of the “most ethnically diverse” places in Britain.

The 2011 British census recorded that two-thirds of its population was non-white and nearly half, or 48.5 per cent of the people here, described themselves as Asian.

But MPs from Leicester East have been in the news for all kinds of unflattering reasons for the past couple of years.

Leicester East’s previous high-profile MP of 32 years, Keith Vaz, was forced to step down after a scandal involving young men and drugs.

Last month, according to an official report, the former Labour minister was reprimanded for having engaged in “sustained and unpleasant bullying” towards a parliamentary member of staff. 

But more recently, it is his successor and incumbent MP, Claudia Webbe, the first female MP to represent the constituency, elected in 2019, who has been in the news.

She was convicted by a court in Westminster on charges of harassing Michelle Merritt, a friend of her partner’s, with phone calls and threats.

Webbe took the stand to protest her innocence but was declared guilty by the judge.

Newspapers have carried allegations of her threatening Merritt —who has not been revealed to the public — with an “acid attack.” 

But it is important to remember that in the one call that was used on the record and played out in court, there were none of the words allegedly used by her according to the accuser (“slag” among them) or any mention of an “acid attack.”

Webbe found herself suspended by the Labour Party even before the conviction on September 27.

She has stood her ground and said she will appeal.

“Not even when I lost my temper on 25 April 2020 at the height of the national lockdown did I use any derogatory terms to refer to women. Or use any expletives or threats of violence. I did not make any silent calls or withheld number calls and I did not make a call in 2018 or in March 2019. There is no evidence of any of this,” she said in a statement.

The chief district judge, Paul Goldspring, made a mention of Webbe’s good character — or what he termed “positive good character” — but said that was not enough to counter his belief that the allegations stood, even in the absence of definitive proof that it was Webbe who actually made several silent calls that came from an undisclosed number.

That there was no proof that Webbe made those calls was admitted by the crown prosecutor in court on October 13 2021.

Yet, the judge concluded: “I found Ms Webbe’s evidence to be vague, inconsistent and at times to be illogical.”

Who is Claudia Webbe?

Born in 1965, Claudia Webbe was at De Montfort University, Leicester, and studied social science before taking a masters’ degree in race and ethnic relations at the University of London.

Webbe has previously served as an adviser to Ken Livingstone when he was mayor of London.

A well-established campaigner for anti-racism, Webbe is the first British-born member of Parliament of African descent from the Caribbean Island of Nevis and a proud daughter of the Windrush generation.

Webbe was elected to Islington Council in 2010. She was also re-elected subsequently in 2014 and 2018. 

Seen as a committed and conscientious voice of the left, women and of people of colour, she was a founder and former chair of Operation Trident, a community-led initiative created in 1996 to tackle the disproportionate effects of gun violence on black communities.

The initiative was changed in 2013, when the police started heading the unit, a move regarded by Webbe as retrograde and she was vocal to oppose it. 

Webbe is seen to be on the left of the Labour Party and is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs.

A supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, she also was on the Labour’s governing national executive committee between 2016 and 2019.

The road ahead

The law in Britain says that if an MP is convicted and sent to custody for less than a year and her appeal fails, a recall petition would be triggered in the constituency. It is only if 10 per cent of them agree, then a by-election would be conducted.

Webbe is now an independent MP, though she is still is a member of the Labour Party.

She has found herself in the crosshairs over the power struggle in Labour between Corbyn and Starmer supporters.

It was probably why Labour was first to jump and suspend her even before her conviction.

After the conviction a Labour spokesperson said: “The Labour party strongly condemns Claudia Webbe’s actions and she should now resign.”

Also, there are undercurrents of resentment among sections in the constituency over the seat going from Indian-origin Vaz, who had held it for 32 years, to a person of African descent. 

Webbe continues to function as an MP as far as is possible for her.

She is continuing with constituency surgeries and attending to issues faced by the people of Leicester East.

All this, despite security concerns in the wake of the killing of fellow MP, David Amess, of the Conservative Party.

Sources close to her make it clear that she sees it as another example of the long road ahead for black people in Britain, especially when any kind of crime is reported.

“The judge had a choice to believe someone who happened to be white or me. Despite my many years of public service the judge chose to believe my accuser,” she said on the day of her conviction. 

Webbe’s sentencing will be on November 4. But there are no signs of her giving up.

Harsev Bains is national vice-president of the Indian Workers Association GB. The IWA GB is one of the oldest immigrants’ rights groups in Britain, working in the fields of politics, race relations, industrial relations, social welfare and cultural issues. IWA In Leicester and nationally stands in full solidarity with Claudia.

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