Once More Unto The Breach

Who is representing David Warburton's constituents, as he is still being paid to do? Who is representing the other one's? The other one is of course being named in foreign media, but it would presumably be a contempt of Parliament to do so in Britain after the Speaker's intervention, so let's not. Still, if I were he, then I would keep coming in until the day that I was sent down. These things take years, and you have only one MP.

There are countries where people disappear into police stations and their names are never mentioned again. This is not one of those countries. It may be (I do not know, but it may be) a contempt of Parliament to name this MP in view of the Speaker's exhortation not to do so. But in general, there is no law against saying that a named individual had been arrested. Nor should there be.

The expulsion of Claudia Webbe took Labour down to fewer than 200 MPs. If she won her appeal, then she should tell the party where to stick any suggestion of readmission. But you cannot be acquitted of harassment. Two solicitors and a barrister have confirmed that to me, and I was told in writing that I would have no lawyer if I tried to plead not guilty. The crime consists in having made the complainant feel harassed. If she says that she was, then she was. That was literally the only evidence presented against Webbe. She was convicted.

What matters is to be well enough connected that the Crown Prosecution Service will take up the case. That is not a problem if you are Keir Starmer. In any case, Magistrates rarely acquit, because that was not why they became Magistrates, and a District Judge is a salaried employee of the same State that brings the prosecution, sitting alone both to determine guilt and then to pass sentence. A District Judge, and the Chief one at that, for a single charge of harassment? Again, that is not a problem if you are Keir Starmer.

Webbe's suspended sentence was handed down in order to buy Starmer some time at Leicester East, where people are starting to wonder, or are preparing to say out loud, who funded Keith Vaz's two staffed offices. Those have had queues down the street since Webbe's trial began, on the assumption that he was already the MP again, bar the formality of a by-election. Knowing that his suspension would lapse with the dissolution of the Parliament that had imposed it, Vaz has continued to send a calendar of himself to every address in Leicester East, as has been his custom since 1987.

Unless she won her appeal this week, then Webbe would be on borrowed time. Once Labour was good to go at Leicester East, then she would be banged up for breach. All that they would need would be another complaint of harassment. You cannot be acquitted of harassment. Two solicitors and a barrister have confirmed that to me, and I was told in writing that I would have no lawyer if I tried to plead not guilty. The crime consists in having made the complainant feel harassed. If she says that she was, then she was. That was literally the only evidence presented against Webbe. She was convicted. Unless she triumphed this week, then she would rapidly be convicted again, and therefore imprisoned. What matters is to be well enough connected that the Crown Prosecution Service will take up the case. That is not a problem if you are Keir Starmer.