Fixer’s boast: I went clubbing with Jeremy
THE ‘Corbynista’ who savaged Jewish ‘Trump fanatics’ was in a new row last night over reports that he boasted he used to ‘go to nightclubs’ with Jeremy Corbyn.
Pete Willsman, 74 – the Labour leader’s Left-wing ‘fixer’ on the party’s ruling body – is said to have bragged he took two young girls he met by chance to the exclusive Chinawhite club in London’s West End.
The Marxist campaigner also allegedly boasted he ‘did not need to work’ because he had made £50,000 on the stock market last year.
He told Labour insiders it enabled him to indulge his love of ‘twerking’ at nightclubs with young women, The Mail on Sunday has been told. Mr Willsman is said to refer to the Fiori restaurant in the heart of London’s clubland in Leicester Square as his ‘office’.
A source said: ‘He spends hours there on his two hobbies: plotting on behalf of Jeremy and chatting up young girls. He says they are impressed when he tells them he is big mates with Jeremy.
‘He claims he used to have a great time going clubbing in the old days with Jeremy.’
According to a report on the Guido Fawkes political website yesterday, Mr Willsman told a meeting of Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) in 2016 that he had a ‘three-yard rule’ about how close he could safely get to women while chatting them up. He is said to have been rebuked by Labour MP Rosie Winterton when he invited young female NEC members to go clubbing.
Friends say Mr Willsman is ‘open’ about the fact he enjoys the company of young women and talks of visiting London clubs, including Chinawhite, over the years. One source said: ‘He is not a sex pest, but you cannot get away with the kind of chauvinist comments he makes in the post-Harvey Weinstein age.’ But Mr Willsman was defended by a Labour colleague, who said: ‘Pete is a formidable operator and devoted to Jeremy, but wouldn’t hurt a fly. He’s an English eccentric. His regular rants at NEC meetings are well known.’
This newspaper has seen leaked emails which reveal a bitter feud between Mr Willsman and fellow ‘Corbynista’ Jon Lansman.
In them, Mr Willsman called Mr Lansman, the leader of the pro-Corbyn Momentum group, a ruthless ‘Stalinist’.
Mr Lansman has backed moves to strip Mr Willsman of his NEC seat over his comments about Jewish ‘Trump fanatics’.
Mr Corbyn’s allies are counting on Mr Willsman to force through NEC rule changes to stop the Labour leader being ousted by moderate MPs.