Ex-Labour MP urges pro-Palestine protesters to cause chaos in ‘mass resistance’

Former Labour MP Claudia Webbe has urged pro-Palestine protesters to bring chaos to the streets of London next month, the Express can reveal.

The ex-Leicester East MP joined activists from Youth Demand, an offshoot of Just Stop Oil, during a secret meeting on Thursday night.

The group was laying out plans for their “mass civil resistance campaign in April”.

During the call, 59-year-old Webbe, who was found guilty of harassing her partner’s mistress and expelled from Labour in 2021, accused Sir Keir Starmer’s government of a “crackdown” on pro-Palestine demonstrations.

She said: “When history looks back on this moment, it will remember the architects of this crackdown. It will remember Keir Starmer, Yvette Cooper, and it will judge them harshly.

“They are the ones turning Britain into a place where protest is punished, where solidarity is smeared as hate, where genocide is normalised. And mark my words; their legacy will be one of shame.

“Your legacy will be one of action. That’s why we should support Youth Demand. So do what you can. Sign up, contribute, and act now.”

Former Tory prisons minister, now a member of Reform UK, Ann Widdicombe branded Ms Webbe’s intervention “appalling”.

“If someone wants to demonstrate in favour of Palestine, that’s fine. But just as with Just Stop Oil, when it comes to quite deliberately disrupting normal civilian life then Government needs to get involved”.

Ms Webbe then listened as Youth Demand activist Sam Holland, 22, who dropped out of Leeds University to become a full-time paid protester, discussed the group’s plot to “shut down” London for April.

He said: “In November 2024 we swarmed five UK cities for a week. We had over 400 people taking part in swarming road blocks across the country.

“And in April, we’re going to bring the people from all of those cities to London to swarm the capital day, after day, after day, for a month straight”, the Youth Demand co-founder said.

“We’re looking at costing the Met Police millions of pounds”, he added.

Holland revealed new details of the plan, telling the meeting that activists from different regions would be invited down to protest in the capital in waves.

Youth Demand, which is part of Umbrella, a collective of direct action groups which includes Just Stop Oil, says it has two demands.

The first is that the UK Government “must stop all trade with Israel”. The second is that the UK Government “must raise at least £1tn by 2030 to pay climate damages to the Global South, by taxing fossil fuel profits and the super-rich”.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “We’re aware that various groups have expressed an intention to protest and to cause disruption in the coming months.

“The Met will support the right to peacefully protest balancing the rights of protestors and Londoners but where groups attempt to cause serious disruption we will take appropriate action.”

Youth Demand and Claudia Webbe were approached for comment. The Home Office has also been approached for comment.