Claudia Webbe: who is the ex Labour MP - and what was she found guilty of?

Former Labour MP Claudia Webbe has lost her appeal against her conviction for harassing a love rival – but her sentence has been reduced after a judge found she did not threaten the victim with acid.

Here, we take a look at who the MP is, what she has been found guilty of and when she will be sentenced.

Who is Claudia Webbe?

Webbe, from Islington, north London, became an MP in December 2019 after winning the seat of Leicester East formerly held by Labour veteran Keith Vaz.

The 56-year-old was suspended from the Labour party in September 2020 after she was charged with harassment.

She has been an independent MP in the Commons since having the party whip removed.

What has Claudia Webbe been found guilty of?

The MP was found guilty of harassment.

Webbe targeted Michelle Merritt, 59, between September 2018 and April 2020.

Prosecutors said the 18-month harassment campaign was driven by “obsession” and “jealousy” over her boyfriend Lester Thomas’s relationship with executive assistant Ms Merritt.

The victim told how Webbe branded her a “s**g” who “should be acid” and threatened to reveal naked photographs to her family in a string of phone calls.

Webbe, a former adviser to the National Police Chiefs’ Council on firearms, was found guilty of harassment by Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring and handed a 10-week suspended jail sentence following a trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court last year.

In another call, recorded by the complainant, Webbe is heard telling the victim to “get out of my relationship” some 11 times.

Webbe, had denied harassment, claiming she only made “courtesy calls” to warn Ms Merritt not to breach coronavirus regulations by meeting Lester Thomas.

What happened at the appeal hearing?

Prosecutors said the 18-month harassment campaign was driven by “obsession” and “jealousy” over her boyfriend Lester Thomas’s relationship with executive assistant Ms Merritt.

Sexual text messages between the pair, which were revealed for the first time during Webbe’s appeal hearing at Southwark Crown Court, proved the pair were having an affair.

Helen Law, defending argued the messages showed Ms Merritt had repeatedly lied, having told the magistrates’ court they were just “good friends”.

But on Thursday, following an appeal hearing at Southwark Crown Court Judge Deborah Taylor and two magistrates dismissed the appeal.

The judge said: “We found that although Michelle Merritt was an unsatisfactory witness who told lies about the nature of her relationship with Lester Thomas until the downloads from her phone made the nature of the relationship clear, in other respects we accept her evidence.”

The judge said the court found Webbe had not “made a threat to throw acid over” Ms Merritt, but that a string of silent phone calls and threats to reveal naked pictures of her had been “a course of conduct which amounted to harassment”.

It was also said the evidence differed “considerably” from that heard in the magistrates’ court.

Judge Taylor said: “We take into account you were under considerable stress at the time of these events, there were a number of election campaigns you were running at the time,” she said.

She said Webbe’s boyfriend’s affair caused her “great distress”, which was “exacerbated by lockdown”.

“In the circumstances we consider that the new evidence sheds new light on the nature and extent of your offending,” the judge added.

What was her sentence changed to?

The judge reduced Webbe’s suspended sentence to a 12-month community order of 80 hours unpaid work, although she has already carried out 150 hours, and cut the compensation from £1,000 to £50.

She had faced the prospect of a recall petition, which could have resulted in a by-election in her constituency, as a result of the suspended custodial sentence originally imposed.

The reduced, non-custodial, sentence means she now avoids that prospect, although has Labour called for her to quit voluntarily.

What Claudia Webbe said after the verdict

After the hearing, Webbe said in a statement: “I am deeply shocked by today’s outcome.

“As I said in court and repeat now, I have never threatened violence nor would I.”

“I was deeply frustrated that my partner and Michelle Merritt had been socialising in the middle of the covid pandemic, contrary to the rules and all health advice,” she said.

“I was frightened and frustrated by his behaviour.

“But that fear and frustration could not and should not have been interpreted as harassment.”

Mr Thomas, a consultant at Crossrail, football coach and scout for Chelsea FC, had been expected to give evidence for the first time in Webbe’s appeal.

But the politician told how she had split up with her boyfriend in March this year, when the new messages between Mr Thomas and Ms Webbe came to light.

What has Labour said about Claudia Webbe?

The party has urged Webbe to quit parliament. A spokesman said: “The allegations in this case were extremely serious. The Labour Party rightly expects elected representatives to maintain the very highest standards at all times.

“Ms Webbe should now resign so the people of Leicester East can get the representation they deserve.”