Abbott’s job for Venezuela activist
SHADOW home secretary Diane Abbott has provided a job and a Parliamentary pass to a member of a campaign group that backs the Venezuelan government.
Matthew Willgress, who is an official of the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign (VSC), works part-time for Miss Abbott on digital communications and social media. He does not carry out work for the VSC while working for her office, Miss Abbott’s spokesman said.
The disclosure comes with Jeremy Corbyn under increasing pressure to speak out against Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro. The socialist president has been accused of rights abuses and of overseeing an increasingly dictatorial reign after a contested vote gave his party extra powers but the Labour leader will only condemn abuses ‘on both sides’.
Miss Abbott greeted Mr Maduro’s election in 2013 with a tweet saying ‘a better way is possible’. She previously voiced support for the Left-wing government of his predecessor, Hugo Chavez.
The VSC is based in the same building as the London office of the union Unite, Labour’s biggest source of funding. It has called for the results of the disputed vote to be respected, according to a letter from its honorary president, former London mayor Ken Livingstone.
The most recent post on the VSC website is a Morning Star article by Mr Corbyn’s ally and Labour MP Chris Williamson, who blames US interference, collapsing oil prices and corruption for making ‘the job of Maduro’s government almost impossible since Chavez died’.
Mr Corbyn was asked again yesterday to take a stand against Mr Maduro following UN allegations of human rights abuses in Venuzuela. He said he took the accusations ‘very seriously’ and said they must be investigated but added: ‘The solution has to be dialogue in Venezuela, has to be independence of the judiciary, and has to be support for a process that brings about a peaceful, long-term solution.’
Labour MP John Spellar, who sits on a new allparty parliamentary group on Venezuela, said: ‘People need to decide which side they are on – they should not be with this discredited regime.’