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LEICESTER EAST MP DENIES CAMPAIGN OF HARASSMENT AS SHE GIVES EVIDENCE IN
LEICESTER East MP Claudia Webbe has denied a charge of harassment while giving evidence in court.
The MP’s trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court got officially under way on Monday after previously being adjourned in March.
Webbe, 56, allegedly made a string of phone calls to 59-year-old Michelle Merritt in a campaign of harassment between September 1, 2018, and April 26 last year.
Webbe, 56, is accused of threatening Ms Merritt, calling her derogatory names and allegedly saying she would send nude photographs of Ms Merritt to her family, as well as deliberately making silent phone calls from a withheld number.
Prosecutor Susannah Stevens said Webbe, who sits in the Commons as an independent after being suspended by the Labour Party, harassed Ms Merritt because she was jealous of her friendship with the MP’s partner.
The prosecutor said Webbe made a series of silent phone calls from a withheld number before the “harassment escalated” on Mother’s Day, March 31, 2019.
The court heard Webbe continued to make further calls to the complainant despite being warned by a police officer and Ms Merritt recorded one after ringing her back on April 25 last year.
However, speaking in court, Webbe has denied these allegations.
Webbe, from Islington, north London, told the court: “I have never attempted to threaten Michelle Merritt, I have never sought to cause her any anxiety or concern with an actual threat.”
Webbe, who was living with Lester Thomas, a consultant at Crossrail as well as a football coach and scout for Chelsea, denied ever deliberately making silent phone calls from a withheld number.
She said she was aware Ms Merritt was friends with her partner but “didn’t have any concerns” about their relationship, adding: “I was not jealous.”
“I have actually never had any concerns about any other person in Lester’s life because Lester is a very open person and having displayed his affections for me on every social media in a public way,” Webbe said.
Ms Merritt had told the court she had known Mr Thomas for more than 15 years and they were “good friends”, having previously dated
Webbe also denied making threats in the Mother’s Day phone call, which Ms Merritt claims is when the harassment got worse.
She told the court: “I didn’t do any of that. I have never sworn in my life, I don’t use expletives, I would never treat women like that.
“I spent my lifetime campaigning for the rights of women, for challenging this type of behaviour and this is not something that is in my character and not something I would ever do.
“These terms and these words are not my words. I would never, ever use such expletives, such derogatory terms about another person, let alone another woman.” Webbe said she had received a phone call from police following Ms Merritt’s complaint but said it was unclear, not significant, and that she had not been “warned off any further contact”.
She also claimed the recorded phone call had been taken out of context, having occurred while she was arguing with Mr Thomas about breaching the Covid-19 lockdown with Ms Merritt. “My anger on that particular day was directed towards Lester,” she said. “It’s not my finest moment. I listened to the tape earlier. I’m embarrassed by it.” Webbe entered the Commons in December 2019, winning the seat formerly held by Keith Vaz, the Labour veteran who retired from Parliament after 32 years in the wake of a scandal.
She was a political adviser to then-London mayor Ken Livingstone, worked as a councillor in Islington between 2010 and 2018 and was a member of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee.
Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring adjourned the case to October 13, when the trial will continue.
I spent my lifetime campaigning for the rights of women, for challenging this type of behaviour Claudia Webbe