Claudia Webbe

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Not to be confused with Claudia Weber.
Claudia Webbe
MP
File:Official portrait of Claudia Webbe MP crop 2.jpg
Webbe in 2019
Member of Parliament
for Leicester East
Assumed office
12 December 2019
Preceded by Keith Vaz
Majority 6,019 (12.2%)
Islington London Borough Councillor
for Bunhill
In office
6 May 2010 – 6 May 2021
Preceded by Donna Boffa
Personal details
Born Claudia Naomi Webbe
(1965-03-08) 8 March 1965 (age 59)
Leicester, England
Political party Independent
Other political
affiliations		 Labour (until 3 November 2021)
Socialist Campaign Group (2019–2021)
Residence London, England
Alma mater
Website Official website

Claudia Naomi Webbe (born 8 March 1965)[1] is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament for Leicester East since 2019. Born in Leicester, she was a councillor in the London Borough of Islington from 2010 until her resignation in March 2021, having served as its cabinet member for environment and transport. She was a member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party from 2016 until her election to Parliament.

Webbe is the first female Member of Parliament for Leicester East. She was elected to Parliament for the Labour Party in 2019, but was suspended from the party whip in September 2020 after being charged with harassment of a woman. Though suspension did not immediately affect her membership of the party, she did face party expulsion. She was convicted of harassment in October 2021 and expelled from Labour on 3 November 2021.

Early life and education

Webbe has described how she was born and brought up in Leicester[2] to parents of African descent who migrated from Nevis to the UK around the time of the Windrush generation.[3] She studied social science at De Montfort University, Leicester, followed by race and ethnic relations at Birkbeck, University of London.[4]

Operation Trident

Webbe is a founder and former Chair of Operation Trident,[5] a community-led initiative created in the mid-1990s to tackle the disproportionate effects of gun violence on black communities.[6] In 2010, it was reported that Operation Trident would be disbanded as part of spending cuts.[7]

In February 2013, Trident was reformed as the Trident Gang Crime Command to focus on youth violence, with the police chairing the Trident Independent Advisory Group itself.[8] Webbe opposed the change, and called it "a backwards step on race".[9]

Early political career

Webbe was a policy director and adviser to the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.[5]

Webbe stood for election as a councillor in Islington in 2006 but was unsuccessful.[10] She was elected as a Labour councillor to Islington London Borough Council in 2010, representing Bunhill ward.[11] She was re-elected in 2014 and 2018.[12] She served as the council's executive member for the environment and transport.[5] Webbe resigned as Islington councillor in March 2021.[13]

Considered to be a close ally of the then Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, Webbe was elected to the Labour Party's National Executive Committee (NEC) with support from the Momentum organisation in 2016, finishing third in the ballot with 92,377 votes.[5][4] In 2018, she was shortlisted to become the Labour candidate in the Lewisham East by-election, but finished third in a vote among local party members and was not selected.[14] In July 2018, she was elected as chair of the NEC Disputes Panel.[15] In 2018 Webbe was re-elected to the NEC, finishing second in the ballot with 83,797 votes.[16] She became ineligible to retain her NEC membership upon being elected to Parliament.[17]

Parliamentary career

She was selected as the Labour candidate for Leicester East for the 2019 general election; the party's incumbent MP, Keith Vaz, had stood down after being suspended from Parliament for six months. Her selection resulted in the resignation of the Constituency Labour Party chair, who described it as "a fix", and some in the local British Indian community were angry that one of their candidates was not interviewed.[18][19][20] Some saw it as a Momentum-led imposition of a left-wing candidate on a traditionally centrist constituency party.[4] Webbe was elected with a majority of 6,019. This compared with a 22,428 Labour majority in the seat in 2017; the Labour Party nationally suffered its worst election results since 1935.[citation needed]

Webbe sat on the Backbench Business Committee in the House of Commons between March 2020 and April 2021. As of September 2021, she sits on the Environmental Audit Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Committee of Arms Export Control.[21] She is also an "alternate member" of the UK delegation to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.[22] As of September 2020, she is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs.[4]

In February 2021, Webbe apologised after an investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards found that she had broken the Code of Conduct for MPs by her multiple late (by months) registrations of remunerations received for her role as a councillor in Islington. The Commissioner also noted the late registration of a payment received from a business.[23] Also in 2021, Webbe stated on Twitter that "Earth is overpopulated; there are too many rich people To solve the climate crisis; the rich must be abolished", a remark that drew criticism in view of her £81,000-per-year MP's salary.[24][25][26]

Harassment conviction and sentence

On 28 September 2020, Webbe was charged with harassment of a woman between 1 September 2018 and 26 April 2020. She was initially remanded to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 11 November 2020.[27] She was suspended from the Labour whip pending the outcome of the case, but no longer remains a member of the Labour Party after being expelled on the third of November 2021 in response to the sentence passed upon her in court.[4] On 11 November 2020, Webbe pleaded not guilty.[28] In September 2021, it was reported that the alleged harassment was directed at a woman whom Webbe believed to be having an affair with her partner, and included a threat to send explicit photographs of the alleged victim to her children.[29] The threats also included her saying "You should be acid".[30]

Webbe was found guilty on 13 October 2021. District Judge Paul Goldspring, the Chief Magistrate, said her evidence was "untruthful", and that her defence was "vague, incoherent and at times illogical". A sentencing hearing took place on 4 November 2021. The Chief Magistrate sentenced her to 10 weeks in custody; suspended for 2 years, and 200 hours of unpaid work. The Labour Party called on her to resign from Parliament.[30] She is no longer a member of the Labour Party.[31]

References

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External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Leicester East
2019–present		 Incumbent

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