Ex-Labour MP who was convicted of harassment joins Jeremy Corbyn’s hard-left party

Responding to Corbyn’s announcement, she said: “Real change is coming. I am proud to be part of this. Let’s get this party started.”

She then posted a link to a page for a group entitled “Collective” which describes itself as a “mass movement for a new left wing party.”

Claudia Webbe has long been a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn

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Webbe first won the Leicester East seat in 2019, taking over from Keith Vaz, who had held the seat for 32 years.

Vaz was suspended from the Commons in 2019 after he was found to have “expressed willingness” to purchase cocaine for male prostitutes.

In September 2020, Webbe was suspended from the party whip after being charged with harassment of a woman who was having an affair with her then-partner.

The 60-year-old was expelled from Labour on November 3, 2021, after being convicted in October.

Webbe was given a suspended prison sentence and sat in the Commons as an independent MP. The custodial sentence was later reduced to community service following an appeal.

She stood as an independent against Vaz’s One Leicester party at last year’s General Election, with both losing to Tory Shivani Raja in the Conservative Party’s only gain of the night.

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Claudia Webbe lost her appeal against the sentence

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Disgraced former Labour MP Keith Vaz

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Corbyn said that “discussions are ongoing” about the shape of a prospective new political party, after Zarah Sultana said she was quitting Labour to “co-lead the founding” of a new outfit with the Islington North MP.

Sultana, the MP for Coventry South who lost the Labour whip in the Commons last year, said the project would also include other independent MPs and campaigners.

Corbyn was suspended from Labour in 2020 after he refused to fully accept the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s findings that the party broke equality law when he was in charge, and said antisemitism had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons”.

He was blocked from standing for Labour at last year’s general election and expelled in the spring of 2024, after saying he would stand as an Independent candidate in his Islington North constituency, which he won with a majority of more than 7,000 against Labour’s Praful Nargund.

Corbyn won his Islington North seat 24,120 votes, while Nargund won 16,873 votes

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Speaking earlier this week, Corbyn said: “Congratulations to Zarah Sultana on her principled decision to leave the Labour Party. I am delighted that she will help us build a real alternative.

“The democratic foundations of a new kind of political party will soon take shape. Discussions are ongoing – and I am excited to work alongside all communities to fight for the future people deserve.

“Together, we can create something that is desperately missing from our broken political system: hope.”