A LABOUR activist expelled from the party for verbally clashing with an MP has claimed Jeremy Corbyn did not believe he had done anything wrong.
Marc Wadsworth said he had received “behind the scenes” support from the Labour leader’s office during his disciplinary hearing – a claim denied by sources close to Corbyn.
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Wadsworth’s expulsion followed a hearing by Labour’s disciplinary body that found his behaviour had been “grossly detrimental to the party”.
But the veteran activist claimed Corbyn had told mutual friends “he doesn’t see that I did anything wrong”.
Corbyn’s office disputed Wadsworth’s account and insisted no member of staff had called to offer him support. However, a source said a call was made by a member of Labour staff to one of Wadsworth’s supporters to reduce the risk of “incidents” outside the disciplinary hearing, which began on Wednesday.
According to a Labour source, Wadsworth then made clear he was “unhappy” that Corbyn had not supported him or responded to attempts to contact him.
Wadsworth had accused Jewish MP Ruth Smeeth of “working hand in hand” with The Daily Telegraph during a tirade at the launch of the Chakrabarti report on anti-Semitism in 2016.
Wadsworth hit out at the disciplinary process used against him and claimed he had been made a scapegoat.
He said: “The first letter I got, cancelling my membership summarily, was based on an alleged verbal attack on a member of the Parliamentary Labour Party which was uncomradely, brought the party into disrepute and embarrassed the leader.
“Well, the leader has told mutual friends he wasn’t embarrassed because he doesn’t see that I did anything wrong.”
Asked if Corbyn’s office had been supporting his case, Wadsworth said: “When they called me on the first day of the hearing, they said to me that they had been working behind the scenes, that what I said wasn’t anti-Semitic.”
He acknowledged Corbyn “did have a bit of a go at me” at the time of the incident and said “perhaps I could have used kinder language”.
Asked who from Corbyn’s team had been in touch with him on the first day of the disciplinary hearing, Wadsworth said: “I’m not going to get into names.”
Over the past three years, a total of 300 complaints have been made over anti-Semitism in Labour, about half of which led to people being expelled from or leaving the party.
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