Claudia Webbe
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Claudia Naomi Webbe (born 8 March 1965) is a British politician who is currently the
Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
(MP) for
Leicester East Leicester East is a United Kingdom constituencies, constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament since December 2019 by Claudia Webbe, who was ele ...
. Elected to Parliament for
Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
in the 2019 general election, she currently sits as an
independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...
. Born in Leicester, Webbe was a
councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...
in the
London Borough of Islington The London Borough of Islington ( ) is a London borough in Inner London. Whilst the majority of the district is located in north London, the borough also includes a significant area to the south which forms part of central London. Islington has ...
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 The National Executive Committee (NEC) is the governing body of the UK Labour Party, setting the overall strategic direction of the party and policy development. Its composition has changed over the years, and includes representatives of affilia ...
from 2016 until her election to Parliament. Webbe is the first female MP for Leicester East. She was suspended from the party whip in September 2020 after being charged with harassment of a woman who was having an affair with her then-partner. She was later expelled from the Labour Party on 3 November 2021 after being convicted in October 2021. Webbe lost her appeal on 26 May 2022.


Early life and education

Webbe has described how she was born and brought up in
Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...
to parents of African descent who migrated from
Nevis Nevis is a small island in the Caribbean Sea that forms part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies. Nevis and the neighbouring island of Saint Kitts constitute one country: the Federation of Saint Kitts and Ne ...
to the UK around the time of the
Windrush generation British African-Caribbean people are an ethnic group in the United Kingdom. They are British citizens whose ancestry originates from the Caribbean or they are nationals of the Caribbean who reside in the UK. There are some self-identified Afro-C ...
. She went to King Richard III Secondary school, now
Fullhurst Community College Fullhurst Community College is an over-subscribed 11-16 comprehensive school in Braunstone, West Leicester. In January 2018 Ofsted graded the school ‘Good’, which reflects the continued improvements the school has made and the record summe ...
, in south-west Leicester. She attended
Lanchester Polytechnic , mottoeng = By Art and Industry , established = , type = Public , endowment = £28 million (2015) , budget = £787.5 million , chancellor = Margaret Casely-Hayford , vice_chancellor = John Latham , students = () , undergr ...
from 1983 to 1986, gaining a BSc degree in Mathematics, Statistics and Computers. She studied Social Science at
Leicester Polytechnic De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body. The name De Montfort University was ta ...
, and a PG Diploma in Socio-Legal Studies (Children) at the
University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...
, followed by Race and Ethnic Relations at
Birkbeck, University of London , mottoeng = Advice comes over nightTranslation used by Birkbeck. , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £4.3 m (2014) , budget = £10 ...
. She is a member of the Chartered Management Institute and the
Institute of Leadership and Management The Institute of Leadership & Management is a professional membership body for leaders and managers. Its stated mission is to inspire great leadership - everywhere. The institute is a charity registered in England, Wales and Scotland, with it ...
, with a Certificate in Safer Recruitment from the Children's Workforce Development Council in June 2010, and a National Certificate for Licensing Practitioners from the BIIAB (
British Institute of Innkeeping The British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) is the Professional association, professional body for individuals working in the licensed retail industry in the UK. This primarily includes pubs and bars. Background The BII is a registered charity a ...
) in September 2010.


Operation Trident

Webbe is a founder and former Chair of Operation Trident, a community-led initiative created in the mid-1990s to tackle the disproportionate effects of
gun violence Gun-related violence is violence committed with the use of a firearm. Gun-related violence may or may not be considered criminal. Criminal violence includes homicide (except when and where ruled justifiable), assault with a deadly weapon, and ...
on black communities. In 2010, it was reported that Operation Trident would be disbanded as part of spending cuts. 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. Webbe opposed the change, and called it "a backwards step on race".


Early political career

Webbe was a policy director and adviser to the
Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...
, Ken Livingstone. Webbe stood for election as a councillor in Islington in 2006 but was unsuccessful. She was elected as a Labour councillor to
Islington London Borough Council Islington London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Islington in Greater London, England. The council was created by the London Government Act 1963 and replaced two local authorities: Finsbury Metropolitan Borough Co ...
in 2010, representing Bunhill ward. She was re-elected in 2014 and 2018. She served as the council's executive member for the environment and transport. Webbe resigned as Islington councillor in March 2021. Considered to be a close ally of the then Labour Party leader,
Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
, Webbe was elected to the Labour Party's
National Executive Committee National Executive Committee is the name of a leadership body in several organizations, mostly political parties: * National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, in South Africa * Australian Labor Party National Executive * Nationa ...
(NEC) with support from the
Momentum In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If is an object's mass an ...
organisation in 2016, finishing third in the ballot with 92,377 votes. 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. In July 2018, she was elected as chair of the NEC Disputes Panel. In 2018 Webbe was re-elected to the NEC, finishing second in the ballot with 83,797 votes. She became ineligible to retain her NEC membership upon being elected to Parliament.


Parliamentary career

She was selected as the Labour candidate for Leicester East for the 2019 general election; the party's incumbent MP,
Keith Vaz Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz (born 26 November 1956) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester East for 32 years, from 1987 to 2019. He was the British Parliament's longest-serving Br ...
, had stood down after being suspended from Parliament for six months. Her selection resulted in the resignation of the
Constituency Labour Party __NOTOC__ A constituency Labour Party (CLP) is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular parliamentary constituency. In England and Wales, CLP boundaries coincide with those for UK parliamentary constituenc ...
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. Some saw it as a Momentum-led imposition of a left-wing candidate on a traditionally centrist constituency party. 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. Webbe sat on the Backbench Business Committee in the House of Commons between March 2020 and April 2021. , she sits on the Environmental Audit Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Committee of Arms Export Control. She is also an "alternate member" of the UK delegation to the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, prom ...
. As of January 2020, she is a member of the
Socialist Campaign Group The Socialist Campaign Group, officially the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs and also known as the Campaign Group, is a left-wing, democratic socialist grouping of the Labour Party's Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the ...
of Labour MPs. In February 2021, Webbe apologised after an investigation by the
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is an officer of the British House of Commons. The work of the officer is overseen by the Commons Select Committee on Standards. The current commissioner is Kathryn Stone. Duties The commissioner i ...
found that she had broken the Code of Conduct for MPs by her late registrations of remunerations received for her role as a councillor in
Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...
. The Commissioner also noted the late registration of a payment received from a business. 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.


Harassment conviction

On 28 September 2020, Webbe was charged with harassment of a woman between 1 September 2018 and 26 April 2020. She was placed on unconditional bail to appear at
Westminster Magistrates' Court Westminster Magistrates' Court is a magistrates' court at 181 Marylebone Road, London. The Chief Magistrate of England and Wales, who is the Senior District Judge of England and Wales, sits at the court, and all extradition and terrorism-rela ...
. She was suspended from the Labour whip pending the outcome of the case. On 11 November 2020, Webbe pleaded not guilty. The harassment was directed at a woman who was having an affair with her partner, and allegedly included a threat to send 'naked' photographs of the victim to her children. The threats also allegedly included Webbe saying "You should be acid". Webbe was found guilty on 13 October 2021. District Judge Paul Goldspring, the
Chief Magistrate Chief magistrate is a public official, executive or judicial, whose office is the highest in its class. Historically, the two different meanings of magistrate have often overlapped and refer to, as the case may be, to a major political and admini ...
, said her evidence was "untruthful", and that her defence was "vague, incoherent and at times illogical". A further hearing took place on 4 November 2021, when she was sentenced to 10 weeks imprisonment, suspended for two years, and 200 hours of unpaid work. The Labour Party had called on her to resign from Parliament at the time of her conviction, and she was expelled from the party on the day she was sentenced. Webbe appealed against the conviction and the appeal hearing commenced at Southwark Crown Court on 19 May 2022. Her appeal was dismissed on 26 May 2022, though her sentence was reduced to eighty hours of community service, and compensation to the victim reduced from £1,000 to £50. The judge found that Webbe had not "made a threat to throw acid over" Michelle Merritt. The judge stated Merritt was an "unsatisfactory witness" who had "told lies". The reduced sentence means that Webbe will not be at risk of losing her seat following a recall petition from her constituents.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Webbe, Claudia 1965 births 21st-century British women politicians Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London Alumni of Coventry University Alumni of De Montfort University British anti-racism activists Black British MPs Black British women politicians British socialists Councillors in the London Borough of Islington English people of Saint Kitts and Nevis descent English politicians convicted of crimes Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Independent councillors in the United Kingdom Independent members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Labour Party (UK) councillors Labour Party (UK) officials Living people People convicted of harassment Politicians from Leicester UK MPs 2019–present Politicians affected by a party expulsion process Women councillors in England