Holding feet to fire: A barrister, Corbynista and Leftie councillor
BARRISTER WHO BACKED ISIS BRIDE
Oxford University-educated Abimbola Johnson, 34, is a criminal defence barrister.
She criticised Sajid Javid’s decision in February 2019 – when he was home secretary – to strip citizenship from Shamima Begum, the Bethnal Green schoolgirl who fled to Syria and married an IS fighter, calling it ‘terrifying’ and ‘symptomatic of racism’. She wrote: ‘In a time where people are being deported for minor crimes, where you have to declare your nationality to register with a GP, rent a house, at court, trust me, this Government is ramping up its hostile environment started by [Theresa] May when she was in the Home Office.’
She has also warned secondgeneration immigrants like her to ‘be ready to be treated like a second-class citizen’.
The barrister is also the founder and co-host of the Manifesto Read podcast – a series of round-table discussions ‘spelling out government policies in black and white’.
Practising from 25 Bedford Row chambers, she was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in 2011.
THE LABOUR COUNCILLOR
Katrina Ffrench, 37, a Labour councillor in Wandsworth, south-west London, celebrated Dame Cressida Dick’s departure as Scotland Yard Commissioner, saying it was cause to ‘open the bubbly’. She has also shared a post in support of the Black Lives Matter movement on Facebook, which stated ‘no justice, no peace, get the Met’s knee off our neck’.
In a story published by The Guardian, she suggested officers do not need ‘any more’ powers to tackle crime. She is the founder and director of Unjust-UK – a non-profit organisation that ‘challenges discriminatory practices and policies within UK policing and the wider criminal justice system’. The organisation is part of a consortium that wrote to the Met Police threatening legal action over its ‘racially discriminatory’ database of alleged gang members, which they said stereotyped communities of colour. Miss Ffrench spent nearly three years as chief executive of StopWatch UK, which campaigns against the use of Stop and Search by police.
THE RETIRED COP AND CORBYN FAN
Nick Glynn, 54, is a Jeremy Corbyn supporter and retired senior police officer who spent more than 30 years on duty in Leicestershire.
An expert on use of force by officers, he went on to become a senior policy adviser on police Stop and Search powers. Since then, he has advocated for the decriminalisation of cannabis and written articles criticising the Government’s Policing Bill.
He has been pictured at various events supporting Corbyn and has declared, ‘he’s a leader’. Mr Glynn also holds a role as a senior programme officer at Open Society Foundations, which supports civil society groups. He is said to lead work on police accountability and justice in Europe, covering police powers, protest and discrimination within the criminal legal system.