‘My old mate Corbyn threw me under a bus…but he’s no anti-Semite’
A black anti-racist activist expelled from Labour in the most-high-profile case linked to the party’s anti-Semitism saga has revealed he was a good friend of Jeremy Corbyn.
Marc Wadsworth – who triggered the Stephen Lawrence justice campaign – was the subject of a heated exchange during the Question Time Leaders Special.
An audience member blasted Corbyn for his ‘disgraceful’ handling of anti-Semitism. Ryan Jacobs, 36, referenced the late June 2016 press conference incident for which Wadsworth was eventually expelled last year.
But it turns out that the South African audience member is a die-hard Tory activist who has spoken on the BBC politics show four times.
Left-wing firebrand Wadsworth’s ‘crime’ at the launch of Labour’s Chakrabarti report on anti-Semitism in 2016 was to claim that Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth was ‘working hand in hand with’ a political correspondent from the pro-Tory Daily Telegraph.
He was there to hand out a Momentum press release and insists he did not even know who she was.
Wadsworth said: ‘That person told me brusquely she was “Ruth Smeeth, Labour MP”. So, I suspected an unhealthy, cosy relationship between her and the Telegraph journalist.
‘I later found out the MP was one of Corbyn’s dissident frontbenchers who had resigned to damage him.’
He also categorically denies he had any idea Smeeth is Jewish.
Corbyn was a Haringey councillor and trade union official when he first became friends with the veteran activist in the early Eighties before the now Labour leader became an MP in 1983.
Wadsworth said: ‘Jeremy and me plotted together at meetings of the London pro-Livingstone, Scargill and Benn hard left.’
But the campaigner says the anti-Semitism row has been ‘mishandled’ and has led the likes of Corbyn to ‘throw some of their closest allies under a bus in a doomed attempt to end the damaging row’.
On Question Time, Jacobs, of Hull, accused Corbyn of chatting to the man (Wadsworth) who was accused of offending Smeeth.
He said on the November 22 show: ‘Why were you talking happily with a smile on your face to that same heckler when she’s been heckled in tears at the press conference?’
Stating that he had had ‘many conversations with Ruth Smeeth since then’, Corbyn replied: ‘I did say hello to him [Wadsworth] as I left the meeting, as you would somebody you would know yourself. And also, you don’t know what was said between us.’
Metro.co.uk can exclusively reveal that Corbyn asked his old friend at the press conference if he had seen the text he had sent him. In it, the Labour leader wrote: ‘Sorry I didn’t get to talk to you the other day. I hope you’re okay.’
Wadsworth explained: ‘It referred to me being almost knocked over by the police when I approached him to chat at a hastily-called 10,000-strong pro-Corbyn demo in Parliament Square after 172 of Labour MPs – most of his – had passed a vote of no confidence in him in June 2016.’
But the campaigner is insistent he did not ‘heckle’ Smeeth and the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) took that view against the Jewish Chronicle, which has since amended stories about him.
Wadsworth – who founded the Anti-Racist Alliance in 1991 – has also revealed that there are defamation cases against a number of other media outlets in the pipeline.
The BBC filmmaker was eventually expelled from the party last year, not for anti-Semitism, but for the catch-all charge of ‘bringing the Party into disrepute’.
However, the cloud of anti-Semitism hangs over him.
He is ‘mortified’ by any suggestion he is racist towards anybody and has fought to clear name since 2016. He is being supported by Jewish Voice for Labour – which also backs Corbyn – and Jewish Socialist Group.
Wadsworth, who employed Jewish lawyers to fight his case, said: ‘It’s affected me, my health, family and friends in a terrible way. I’ve faced awful racist abuse on social media and been threatened on public transport.
‘The BBC pulled an inaccurate report about me by its Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg after I complained to her about it. But my hard-won reputation as an anti-racist campaigner has already been trashed.’
Asserting his credentials in the fight against anti-Semitism, he spoke of British-Jewish Hollywood star Sacha Baron Cohen in his Ali G days recognising him at a London nightclub.
Wadsworth proudly recalled: ‘He was with his brother to whom he introduced me, saying we’d been on a demo opposing anti-Semitism together. Sacha gave me his number on a beer mat.
An audience member blasted Corbyn for his ‘disgraceful’ handling of anti-Semitism. Ryan Jacobs, 36, referenced the late June 2016 press conference incident for which Wadsworth was eventually expelled last year.
But it turns out that the South African audience member is a die-hard Tory activist who has spoken on the BBC politics show four times.
Left-wing firebrand Wadsworth’s ‘crime’ at the launch of Labour’s Chakrabarti report on anti-Semitism in 2016 was to claim that Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth was ‘working hand in hand with’ a political correspondent from the pro-Tory Daily Telegraph.
He was there to hand out a Momentum press release and insists he did not even know who she was.
Wadsworth said: ‘That person told me brusquely she was “Ruth Smeeth, Labour MP”. So, I suspected an unhealthy, cosy relationship between her and the Telegraph journalist.
‘I later found out the MP was one of Corbyn’s dissident frontbenchers who had resigned to damage him.’
He also categorically denies he had any idea Smeeth is Jewish.
Corbyn was a Haringey councillor and trade union official when he first became friends with the veteran activist in the early Eighties before the now Labour leader became an MP in 1983.
Wadsworth said: ‘Jeremy and me plotted together at meetings of the London pro-Livingstone, Scargill and Benn hard left.’
But the campaigner says the anti-Semitism row has been ‘mishandled’ and has led the likes of Corbyn to ‘throw some of their closest allies under a bus in a doomed attempt to end the damaging row’.
On Question Time, Jacobs, of Hull, accused Corbyn of chatting to the man (Wadsworth) who was accused of offending Smeeth.
He said on the November 22 show: ‘Why were you talking happily with a smile on your face to that same heckler when she’s been heckled in tears at the press conference?’
Stating that he had had ‘many conversations with Ruth Smeeth since then’, Corbyn replied: ‘I did say hello to him [Wadsworth] as I left the meeting, as you would somebody you would know yourself. And also, you don’t know what was said between us.’
Metro.co.uk can exclusively reveal that Corbyn asked his old friend at the press conference if he had seen the text he had sent him. In it, the Labour leader wrote: ‘Sorry I didn’t get to talk to you the other day. I hope you’re okay.’
Wadsworth explained: ‘It referred to me being almost knocked over by the police when I approached him to chat at a hastily-called 10,000-strong pro-Corbyn demo in Parliament Square after 172 of Labour MPs – most of his – had passed a vote of no confidence in him in June 2016.’
But the campaigner is insistent he did not ‘heckle’ Smeeth and the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) took that view against the Jewish Chronicle, which has since amended stories about him.
Wadsworth – who founded the Anti-Racist Alliance in 1991 – has also revealed that there are defamation cases against a number of other media outlets in the pipeline.
The BBC filmmaker was eventually expelled from the party last year, not for anti-Semitism, but for the catch-all charge of ‘bringing the Party into disrepute’.
However, the cloud of anti-Semitism hangs over him.
He is ‘mortified’ by any suggestion he is racist towards anybody and has fought to clear name since 2016. He is being supported by Jewish Voice for Labour – which also backs Corbyn – and Jewish Socialist Group.
Wadsworth, who employed Jewish lawyers to fight his case, said: ‘It’s affected me, my health, family and friends in a terrible way. I’ve faced awful racist abuse on social media and been threatened on public transport.
‘The BBC pulled an inaccurate report about me by its Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg after I complained to her about it. But my hard-won reputation as an anti-racist campaigner has already been trashed.’
Asserting his credentials in the fight against anti-Semitism, he spoke of British-Jewish Hollywood star Sacha Baron Cohen in his Ali G days recognising him at a London nightclub.
Wadsworth proudly recalled: ‘He was with his brother to whom he introduced me, saying we’d been on a demo opposing anti-Semitism together. Sacha gave me his number on a beer mat.