Pity the poor people of Leicester East. Having only got just rid of the scandal plagued Keith Vaz at the last election, long suffering constituents there have now found themselves lumped with his replacement Claudia Webbe. The latter was suspended as a Labour MP after just nine months following allegations of harassment, with her trial beginning last month. A former Ken Livingstone apparatchik, Webbe has a penchant for demonstrably untrue tweets such as her claim a fortnight ago that the colonisation of Africa had been ‘hidden from you all your life’ when it has in fact been a staple of the national curriculum for key stage 3 for years.
Webbe certainly seems afflicted by nominative determinism as last night she made another internet blunder, tweeting a series of bizarre messages that began: ‘Earth is overpopulated; there are too many rich people. To solve the climate crisis; the rich must be abolished’ adding a series of links to articles blaming ‘the rich’ and claiming the ‘richest 1 per cent in UK produce 11 times the carbon emissions of poorest 50 per cent.’
Leaving aside the sinister undertones about solutions to ‘overpopulation’, Webbe’s Citizen Smith rhetoric rang somewhat hollow given that she herself is among the plutocratic class she despises. As ConservativeHome’s Mark Wallace was quick to point out, as an MP Webbe earns £81,932 which after tax puts her in the top 1 per cent of people around the world – an inconvenient truth that seems, err, rather rich to Steerpike. Still, if Webbe wants to abolish herself, who are we to stand in her way?
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