A senior member of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign team has called on people to break anti-terrorism laws. In a recording obtained by The Sunday Times, Shelly Asquith dismissed the threat of “so-called Islamic extremism” and laid out a programme of “grassroots activism” to make Prevent, the government’s anti-terror strategy, “truly unworkable”. She stated: “Are we asking people to break the law? Absolutely, yes.”
Asquith was the youth and student co-ordinator of Corbyn’s 2015 campaign, spoke alongside him at rallies during this year’s campaign and was chosen to escort him to last week’s Labour conference on the day of his keynote speech. She is also vice-president for welfare at the National Union of Students (NUS) and a key ally of Malia Bouattia, the union’s controversial president, who blocked an NUS motion to condemn Isis.