Labour activist in Red Ken race row set to be party’s head of discipline
Jeremy Corbyn wants to install an activist who defended Ken Livingstone on anti-Semitism claims as Labour discipline chief.
His office is lining up Claudia Webbe to take over as chairman of the disputes panel, sources said yesterday.
It comes just a week after Christine Shawcroft was forced out of the role after opposing the suspension of an alleged Holocaust denier. miss Webbe is a former adviser to ex-mayor of London mr Livingstone and worked on his election bids in 2000 and 2004.
Now she is a Labour councillor in Islington, where mr Corbyn is mP, and describes herself as a passionate supporter of the ‘Corbyn project’. The leader’s backing for her comes despite the fact she stood up for mr Livingstone when he was suspended in 2005 for comparing a Jewish reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard. She wrote to The Guardian, saying the suspension ‘smacked in the face of true democracy’, adding: ‘His history of work in the anti-racist movement is unquestionable.’ If mr Corbyn gets his way, miss Webbe would be in charge of the process by which those accused of anti- Semitism, including mr Livingstone, are suspended or expelled.
The Daily mail can also reveal that miss Webbe spoke at an event alongside marc Wadsworth and Jackie Walker, two Labour members suspended for anti-Semitism.
At the event, in Liverpool last year, miss Walker accused opponents of mr Corbyn of ‘ weaponising’ anti-Semitism claims to destroy his leadership.
A source said: ‘The Leader of the Opposition office are pushing Claudia Webbe.’ She is now frontrunner to be chairman of the disputes panel on Labour’s National executive Committee.
miss Webbe defended mr Livingstone in 2005 after he accused a Jewish reporter of behaving like a ‘concentration camp guard’. On tape he was heard asking Oliver Finegold if he was a ‘German war criminal’. mr Finegold replied: ‘No, I’m Jewish, I wasn’t a German war criminal. I’m quite offended