The MP Claudia Webbe has been sentenced to 10 weeks in custody suspended for two years after being found guilty of a campaign of harassment, including threatening an acid attack, against a woman. Webbe was found guilty of harassing Michelle Merritt, a friend of her partner, with threatening phone calls. A trial was told she had called Merritt a slag, threatened to “use acid” and said she would distribute naked pictures of Merritt to her family. The 56-year-old has also been ordered to undertake 200 hours of unpaid work after being found guilty of harassment. The sentencing of Webbe, who was elected as a Labour MP but now sits as an independent, represents a dramatic fall from grace. In 2019, she was one of the most powerful minority ethnic figures in UK politics, a key aide to Jeremy Corbyn and the chair of the party’s disputes panel. Webbe was elected with a majority of 6,019 but had the whip withdrawn last year after she was charged. She is expected to appeal against her conviction for harassment. But her sentence at Thursday’s hearing will prompt an automatic recall petition in Leicester East if her appeal fails. Both Labour and the Conservatives are preparing to battle over the seat if Webbe fails to turn over the court’s decision. Reacting to the sentence, Webbe continued to protest her innocence and said she had received numerous racist threats. “I am very disappointed by the decision of the magistrate and want to strongly reiterate that I am innocent. I am lodging an appeal and despite today’s sentence I fully expect the appeal to be granted and that ultimately it will be successful. “Throughout this process I have received numerous threats to my life and vile racist abuse. The cowards responsible for these attacks will not deter me from clearing my name. “I want to thank constituents, family, friends and my comrades in the Labour movement for their support and solidarity, and to my legal team for their professionalism during this process.“ In a victim impact statement to the court, Merritt said a “sad, distressing darkness” had enveloped her since the threats from Webbe began several years ago. She said it has affected her career, her friendships and her trust in other people and said she still fears if she might be attacked because of the MP’s political connections. “I am scared of Claudia Webbe … because of Claudia Webbe’s position in government I don’t know what she is capable of,” she said. “Since the end on 2018 and even more since the rescheduling of the March 2021 court case, I have had a foreboding sense that Ms Webbe, someone who has the wherewithal to follow through on her threats or via someone else, would seriously try to hurt or harm me. A sad, distressing darkness has cast a huge shadow across all areas of my life,” she said. Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring described Webbe’s behaviour on Thursday as “callous and intimidatory”. “You were jealous of the relationship between [Webbe’s partner] Lester Thomas and Michelle Merritt, and probably felt in some way threatened by it.” He said Webbe “showed little remorse or contrition” and would have been jailed immediately were it not for her previous good character. Defence counsel Paul Hynes QC said his client had received threats of violence on social media, as well as racist comments. Webbe denied harassment between 1 September 2018 and 26 April 2020 but after a two-day trial last month, Goldspring found her guilty. “I found Ms Webbe’s evidence to be vague, inconsistent and at times to be illogical. It was shaped around the overwhelming evidence against her she could not innocently answer, but ultimately I found it to be untruthful.” He said her conduct towards Merritt was “oppressive and was designed to be so”. “In particular threatening to send intimate photographs to her family and to ‘use acid’ are in my view the best evidence of the intent.” Webbe is a former chair of Operation Trident, which was set up in response to shootings disproportionately affecting black people in London. She was a councillor in Islington between 2010 and 2018 and was a member of Labour’s national executive committee. She entered the House of Commons in December 2019, winning the seat formerly held by Keith Vaz, the former Labour minister who retired from parliament in the wake of a scandal involving cocaine and sex workers. In September an official report found Vaz had engaged in “sustained and unpleasant bullying” towards a member of parliamentary staff. Because Webbe received a custodial sentence of less than a year, if her appeal fails a recall petition would be triggered in her constituency. To prompt a by-election, 10% of the electorate within the constituency would need to sign the petition. While she appeals, she is allowed to continue to be paid as an independent MP and vote in parliament. In January 2019, Fiona Onasanya, the former Labour MP for Peterborough convicted for perverting the course of justice, was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment. Her final appeal was refused in March, triggering the recall process and a by-election in June. Vaz told the Guardian last month that he would not stand again as a Labour candidate in Leicester East but he is known to still carry some support among the constituency party’s executive and voters. The new rule means by-election candidates will be chosen by a five-member panel, three of whom will be selected by the constituency party executive. Local Conservative sources said the party has already begun the interview process for a prospective candidate. The Conservatives’ vote share increased from 24.2% in 2017 to 38.6% in 2019.