Spared jail, MP who threatened to throw acid at her lover’s ex
Found guilty of harassment, axed by Labour ... but she STILL refuses to quit
A SHAMELESS MP who threatened to attack a love rival with acid refused to quit yesterday after being spared jail.
Claudia Webbe blinked back tears as she was handed a suspended ten-week sentence by a judge who had to remind her: ‘You are not the victim’.
Over the course of 18 months, the jealous Corbynite MP bombarded Michelle Merritt with both silent and abusive phone calls.
She accused the woman of ‘slagging around with my boyfriend’ and also threatened to send naked photographs of the victim to her family.
Yet even after her conviction for harassment, the 56year-old MP for Leicester East continued to insist she was the real victim.
Senior District Judge Paul Goldspring said it was ‘concerning’ a probation officer had to remind her that she was a convicted criminal.
He said the MP’s behaviour had been ‘callous and intimidatory’, telling her: ‘The threat to acid Miss Merritt amounts to very serious violence.
‘In terms of mitigating factors, it is very hard to find any. You show little remorse or contrition. You described yourself as the victim at least four times in the witness box. In pre-sentence reports a probation officer felt compelled to remind you that you are not the victim.’
As well as her suspended sentence, Webbe will carry out 200 hours of community service. The judge also ordered her to pay £1,000 compensation and a reduced sum of £2,000 in court costs after Webbe said she did not have the money to cover the £17,620 prosecution costs.
But when her counsel, Paul Hynes QC said the MP was in debt and only offered to pay the fine in £100 increments every 28 days, the judge scoffed: ‘£100 a month is not going to cut it if the salary is £81,000 a year. You have six months to pay.’
When the judge asked whether she would remain employed as an MP, Webbe loudly declared from the dock: ‘The answer is yes.’
The politician, who had already been suspended by Labour and was therefore sitting in the Commons as an independent, was expelled from the party yesterday.
Webbe now faces a recall petition, which could trigger a by-election if at least 10 per cent of her constituents support it.
Yesterday Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard Miss Merritt who dated Webbe’s boyfriend, Lester Thomas about 15 years ago, had been left terrified by the campaign of phone calls between September 2018 and April last year.
Police warned Webbe not to contact Miss Merritt, but she continued to threaten her, saying: ‘I have seen all of your naked pictures, I have seen all of your relationship with Lester, get out of my relationship otherwise I will tell your whole family and show them all your pictures.’ The court had also heard that on one occasion she made an ‘angry’ call, used a derogatory term and added: ‘You should be acid.’
Yesterday the defendant sat stoney-faced as Miss Merritt sobbed, telling how the ordeal had left her unable to sleep and needing therapy.
The victim said: ‘Due to Claudia Webbe’s position in government I do not know what she is capable of... I have had a foreboding sense Miss Webbe – someone who has the wherewithal to follow through on her threats, or via someone else – will seriously try to hurt or harm me. A sad, distressing darkness has cast a huge shadow over all areas of my life.
‘My self-confidence has plummeted, I have had anxiety attacks, almost become a hermit due to not feeling safe outside my home.
‘The constant need to look over my shoulder when I do leave my home, being scared of what could happen to me based on the harassment and threats from Miss Webbe over the years has resulted in my career taking a nosedive.’
Webbe entered the Commons in December 2019, winning the seat formerly held by Keith Vaz, the Labour veteran who retired from Parliament in the wake of a scandal. Despite her conviction, many Labour politicians have supported Webbe, with her character references running to 46 pages.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, ex-shadow chancellor John McDonnell and former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott were among those providing character testimonies at trial.
She has vowed to appeal her conviction, claiming she only made ‘courtesy calls’ to warn Miss Merritt not to breach coronavirus regulations by meeting Mr Thomas, which the judge said was ‘incredible and unbelievable’. The appeal is expected to be heard at Southwark Crown Court at a later date.