Labour staff hung around Snaresbrook courthouse in latter stages of trial ready to announce moves to replace Muslim left MP – but plans were thwarted by dismissal of charges
Local Labour members who supported left Labour MP Apsana Begum throughout the ordeal of her trial on ‘vexatious’ and ‘malice-driven’ charges of housing fraud say that London Labour officials hung around the courthouse ‘like vultures’ in the late stages of the trial – including yesterday – waiting for a guilty verdict so they could announce the preparations for a by-election to replace the pro-Corbyn MP.
And that right-wing candidates had already been lined up to make a shortlist. Witnesses accused the Labour officials of palpable disappointment when yesterday’s acquittal was announced.
On hearing the verdict, Ms Begum said that the prosecution against her had been ‘driven by malice’. Party leader Keir Starmer, a former Director of Public Prosecutions, has found time today to tweet congratulations to Boris Johnson and Carrie Simmonds on her newest pregnancy and about the British team’s medal haul at the Tokyo Olympics, but not to welcome Begum’s victory against the ‘vexatious’ charges.
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