Claudia Webbe
Encyclopedia
Claudia Webbe is the Chairperson of New Scotland Yard's Operation Trident Independent Advisory Group after pioneering its development in the mid 1990s.
Following the targeted murders of children in South London
in February 2007, Webbe was called on to give a number of media responses and was featured throughout on BBC, BBC News 24, BBC Radio 4, BBC Breakfast, ITV, Channel 4 News and Sky News amongst others.
Operation Trident emerged in 1997 as a result of sustained community pressure to tackle the disproportionate effects of gun crime on Black communities, where both the victim and the assailant are Black. The Metropolitan Police Service
now has a dedicated Operation Trident police response unit.
Webbe is the Chairperson of the media campaigns group of Operation Trident and thus has been responsible for leading and pioneering its hard-hitting campaigns. This has contributed to transforming the way the police present themselves in building trust and confidence with the community. The latest campaign engaged the UK garage
/grime
/hip hop
group Roll Deep
, whose latest track "Badman" is a message to those who might have been seduced by the glamour of guns. The track's video, directed by Jake Nava
(famous for Beyoncé
's "Crazy in Love" video), highlights the grim reality of gun crime, its effects on people's lives and the endless cycle of violence it promotes.
When Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
, Tony Blair
in a speech whilst delivering the Callaghan Memorial Lecture in Cardiff
said on the issue of gun crime that we can't pretend "..that it is not young Black kids doing it..." stating that the Black community "... need to be mobilised in denunciation of this gang culture that is killing innocent young black kids...", Webbe launched a furious challenge stating that the Prime Minister's comments were a "Kick in the teeth" to the historical work that the Black community had been doing with very little support and recognition from mainstream agencies.
Webbe stated "The prime minister is wrong to assert or imply that this is a "black problem": the bullet does not discriminate in its effect, and neither is the black community responsible for the manufacture, supply and importation of dangerous weapons."
Webbe combines her work on tackling crime with being a Board Director of Crimestoppers
. Webbe was also a pioneer of the London Multi-Agency Race Hate Crime Forum an anti-racist campaigning organisation, whose current secretariat paradoxically is the Metropolitan Police Authority
.
Webbe's experiences include being an Adviser to the Mayor of London
, Ken Livingstone
, (a member of his election campaign team in 2000 and 2004) arguably thus, the first Black female full-time paid advisor to a directly elected Mayor in the UK.
Presumably this is why Webbe spoke out in Livingstone's defence when on 24 February 2006, the Standards Board for England
as decided by the Adjudication Panel for England
, Livingstone was found guilty of bringing his office into disrepute and suspended from office for four weeks. The trigger for the action was when in February 2005, Livingstone likened an Evening Standard
reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard
Webbe said of Livingstone at the time as published in the Guardian Newspaper:
"... I have known Ken for almost 20 years, having worked with him in numerous anti-racist organisations and campaigns including the Anti-Racist Alliance, the National Assembly Against Racism
and whilst I was Director of Westminster Race Equality Council, he took up cases that I referred onto him for support. His history of work in the anti-racist movement is unquestionable...."
Livingstone launched an appeal and the decision was later quashed by the High Court when on October 5, Justice Collins overturned the suspension, stating that the Adjudicating Panel had misdirected itself
Webbe was the former Chief Executive/Director of Westminster Race Equality Council and the former Chief Executive/Director of Bath and North East Somerset Race Equality Council.
Webbe is also an adviser to the "Kick Racism Out of Football" campaign, which is chaired by Lord Herman Ouseley, the former Chairperson of the Commission for Racial Equality
. She is a Board Director of "Homes for Islington" one of the largest housing management organisations in the UK. However, Homes for Islington is one of the government's controversial Arms Length Management Organisation
(ALMO). Many campaigners regard ALMOs as one step towards the privatisation of council housing.
Webbe is a public speaker and regarded as a long time campaigner of human rights, equality and justice and has been the Chairperson of Path (West Midlands) for the past 11 years tackling significant generational unemployment and barriers to career advancement amongst Britain's minority ethnic communities.
After a long and hard fought campaign in Bunhill she was elected as a councillor
to Islington London Borough Council
, for the Labour Party
which now under Catherine West, of Tollington controls the council. She was elected with 2177 votes, which made her the highest placed candidate, alongside her running mates Troy Gallagher, of EC1 New Deal and Robert Khan, of The Law Society. This victory alongside the reelection of Emily Thornberry
as MP puts the Labour Party far ahead of the Liberal Democrats
in Islington.
and she is related to the singer and musician Simon Webbe
.
Following the targeted murders of children in South London
South London
South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...
in February 2007, Webbe was called on to give a number of media responses and was featured throughout on BBC, BBC News 24, BBC Radio 4, BBC Breakfast, ITV, Channel 4 News and Sky News amongst others.
Operation Trident emerged in 1997 as a result of sustained community pressure to tackle the disproportionate effects of gun crime on Black communities, where both the victim and the assailant are Black. The Metropolitan Police Service
Metropolitan Police Service
The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...
now has a dedicated Operation Trident police response unit.
Webbe is the Chairperson of the media campaigns group of Operation Trident and thus has been responsible for leading and pioneering its hard-hitting campaigns. This has contributed to transforming the way the police present themselves in building trust and confidence with the community. The latest campaign engaged the UK garage
UK garage
UK garage is a genre of electronic dance music originating from the United Kingdom in the early-1990s. UK garage is a descendant of house music which originated in Chicago and New York, United States. UK garage usually features a distinctive syncopated 4/4 percussive rhythm with 'shuffling'...
/grime
Grime (music)
Grime is a style of music that emerged from Bow, East London, England in the early 2000s, primarily as a development of UK garage, dancehall, and hip hop...
/hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
group Roll Deep
Roll Deep
Roll Deep are an Urban Music Awards-winning London-based grime music collective. They were founded in 2002, by a group of MCs including Wiley. Roll Deep were also closely associated with Boy Better Know with members in both. Their debut album, In at the Deep End, was released in June 2005...
, whose latest track "Badman" is a message to those who might have been seduced by the glamour of guns. The track's video, directed by Jake Nava
Jake Nava
Jake Nava was born on 17 August and grew up in northern London. He currently lives in eastern London.He graduated from the University of WestministerJake Nava is an English-born music video and film director.-Filmography:MUSIC VIDEOS...
(famous for Beyoncé
Beyoncé Knowles
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles , often known simply as Beyoncé, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child...
's "Crazy in Love" video), highlights the grim reality of gun crime, its effects on people's lives and the endless cycle of violence it promotes.
When Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
, Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
in a speech whilst delivering the Callaghan Memorial Lecture in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
said on the issue of gun crime that we can't pretend "..that it is not young Black kids doing it..." stating that the Black community "... need to be mobilised in denunciation of this gang culture that is killing innocent young black kids...", Webbe launched a furious challenge stating that the Prime Minister's comments were a "Kick in the teeth" to the historical work that the Black community had been doing with very little support and recognition from mainstream agencies.
Webbe stated "The prime minister is wrong to assert or imply that this is a "black problem": the bullet does not discriminate in its effect, and neither is the black community responsible for the manufacture, supply and importation of dangerous weapons."
Webbe combines her work on tackling crime with being a Board Director of Crimestoppers
Crimestoppers
Crime Stoppers or Crimestoppers is a program separate from the emergency telephone number system, that allows a member of the community to provide anonymous information about criminal activity. It thereby allows the person to provide crime solving assistance to the authorities without being...
. Webbe was also a pioneer of the London Multi-Agency Race Hate Crime Forum an anti-racist campaigning organisation, whose current secretariat paradoxically is the Metropolitan Police Authority
Metropolitan Police Authority
The Metropolitan Police Authority is the police authority responsible for supervising the Metropolitan Police Service, the police force for Greater London ....
.
Webbe's experiences include being an Adviser to the Mayor of London
Mayor of London
The Mayor of London is an elected politician who, along with the London Assembly of 25 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Greater London. Conservative Boris Johnson has held the position since 4 May 2008...
, Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...
, (a member of his election campaign team in 2000 and 2004) arguably thus, the first Black female full-time paid advisor to a directly elected Mayor in the UK.
Presumably this is why Webbe spoke out in Livingstone's defence when on 24 February 2006, the Standards Board for England
Standards Board for England
Standards for England, formerly known as the Standards Board for England, is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Communities and Local Government. Established following the Local Government Act 2000, it is responsible for promoting high ethical standards in local democracy...
as decided by the Adjudication Panel for England
Adjudication Panel for England
The Adjudication Panel for England was an independent judicial tribunal set up under the Local Government Act 2000. It was a Non-departmental public body which ruled on complaints referred to it by the Standards Board for England regarding alleged breaches of English local authorities' codes of...
, Livingstone was found guilty of bringing his office into disrepute and suspended from office for four weeks. The trigger for the action was when in February 2005, Livingstone likened an Evening Standard
Evening Standard
The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard
Webbe said of Livingstone at the time as published in the Guardian Newspaper:
"... I have known Ken for almost 20 years, having worked with him in numerous anti-racist organisations and campaigns including the Anti-Racist Alliance, the National Assembly Against Racism
National Assembly Against Racism
The National Assembly Against Racism is or was a British anti-racist and anti-fascist group.-External links:...
and whilst I was Director of Westminster Race Equality Council, he took up cases that I referred onto him for support. His history of work in the anti-racist movement is unquestionable...."
Livingstone launched an appeal and the decision was later quashed by the High Court when on October 5, Justice Collins overturned the suspension, stating that the Adjudicating Panel had misdirected itself
Webbe was the former Chief Executive/Director of Westminster Race Equality Council and the former Chief Executive/Director of Bath and North East Somerset Race Equality Council.
Webbe is also an adviser to the "Kick Racism Out of Football" campaign, which is chaired by Lord Herman Ouseley, the former Chairperson of the Commission for Racial Equality
Commission for Racial Equality
The Commission for Racial Equality was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom which aimed to tackle racial discrimination and promote racial equality. Its work has been merged into the new Equality and Human Rights Commission.-History:...
. She is a Board Director of "Homes for Islington" one of the largest housing management organisations in the UK. However, Homes for Islington is one of the government's controversial Arms Length Management Organisation
Arms Length Management Organisation
Arms Length Management Organisations or arm's length management organisations are UK not-for-profit companies set up by a local authorities primarily to manage and improve all or part of their housing stock. Ownership of the housing stock itself normally stays with the local authority...
(ALMO). Many campaigners regard ALMOs as one step towards the privatisation of council housing.
Webbe is a public speaker and regarded as a long time campaigner of human rights, equality and justice and has been the Chairperson of Path (West Midlands) for the past 11 years tackling significant generational unemployment and barriers to career advancement amongst Britain's minority ethnic communities.
After a long and hard fought campaign in Bunhill she was elected as a councillor
Councillor
A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...
to Islington London Borough Council
Islington London Borough Council
Islington London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Islington in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Islington is divided into 16 wards, each electing three councillors...
, for the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
which now under Catherine West, of Tollington controls the council. She was elected with 2177 votes, which made her the highest placed candidate, alongside her running mates Troy Gallagher, of EC1 New Deal and Robert Khan, of The Law Society. This victory alongside the reelection of Emily Thornberry
Emily Thornberry
Emily Anne Thornberry is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Islington South and Finsbury since 2005.-Before Parliament:...
as MP puts the Labour Party far ahead of the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
in Islington.
Trivia
Webbe's parents were born in NevisNevis
Nevis is an island in the Caribbean Sea, located near the northern end of the Lesser Antilles archipelago, about 350 km east-southeast of Puerto Rico and 80 km west of Antigua. The 93 km² island is part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies...
and she is related to the singer and musician Simon Webbe
Simon Webbe
Simon Solomon Webbe is an English singer-songwriter, actor and music manager. He is best known as a member of the British boyband Blue.-2001–2005: Early Career And Blue:...
.
External links
- Homes for Islington
- BBC London features Carnival
- Guardian Newspaper Profile
- Socialist Worker article
- Issue 1987 of Socialist Worker
- Operation Black Vote article
- Operation Trident Website stop the guns
- Television appearances
- Operation Trident Advertising Campaigns since 2001
- BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour – "Girls and gun crime"
- Blair blames spate of murders on Black culture
- Election Results