Richard Holden repeats false claim on Any Questions programme despite judge’s ruling that it never happened
Left-wing MP Claudia Webbe has faced torrents of racist abuse and two plots on her life, driven by media misreporting of two court cases. The media claimed, despite a complete lack of evidence, that Ms Webbe had threatened to throw acid at the woman her partner was having an affair with.
An appeal court reduced Webbe’s sentence to a £50 fine, plus community service she had already served – and the appeal judge explicitly rejected the acid accusation. The Society of Black Lawyers and a leading retired judge have condemned the outcome as showing the intrinsic racism of the justice system, after Webbe’s accuser was found to have lied repeatedly and the Met Police withheld evidence during the initial, magistrates’ court trial, that was helpful to Webbe’s case.
But iin its latest Any Questions programme, the BBC allowed Tory MP Richard Holden to repeat the false claim – and ‘Labour’ MP Alison McGovern said not a word to correct him either, nor did the programme’s other two journalist guests:
Ms Webbe was last week similarly smeared by a Tory-supporting hack and reportedly intends to take legal action if she can fund it. At no point in the whole, sorry saga has the Labour party offered any support, instead opting to join in the smears and cut her loose at the first opportunity despite the then-pending appeal.
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