The person elected to chair Labour’s disciplinary panels defended the expelled Marc Wadsworth in an interview on Russia Today, Guido can reveal. Claudia Webbe was appointed as Labour’s new head of disputes this week, four months after Christine Shawcroft resigned from the role after she sent an email backing a suspended alleged Holocaust denier.

In the Russia Today interview broadcast after the local elections in May, Webbe says that Wadsworth, who was expelled from the Labour Party for heckling Jewish MP Ruth Smeeth, was “demonised” by the media, big business and the political elite. Which is an unfortunate choice of words. 

Webbe: In crediting Marc Wadsworth with the tremendous work that he has done over many years in terms of the anti-racist movement, one at the same cannot deny that the party has to address issues of anti-Semitism, issues of racism…

RT: He is clearly not an anti-Semite, is he?

Webbe: When you’ve the powers of the mainstream media, working together with big business working together with the political elite, they can in a sense demonise individuals in this way.

Christine Shawcroft’s tough zero tolerance approach to Labour disciplinary cases lives on with her successor…