Alastair Campbell expelled from Labour Party for Lib Dem vote

Alastair Campbell. Photograph: Alastair Campbell/Twitter. - Credit: Archant

Alastair Campbell has said that he is ‘disappointed’ to have been expelled from the Labour party, after the Remain campaigner publicly announced he voted for the Liberal Democrats in the EU elections.

1. Sad and disappointed to receive email expelling me from @uklabour - particularly on a day leadership finally seems to be moving to the right place on Brexit, not least thanks to tactical voting by party members, including MPs, councillors and peers who back @peoplesvote_uk .
— Alastair PEOPLE'S VOTE Campbell (@campbellclaret) May 28, 2019

The former Labour comms chief, and The New European’s editor-at-large, said he his seeking legal advice.

He tweeted that he is particularly disappointed by it “on a day leadership finally seems to be moving to the right place on Brexit, not least thanks to tactical voting by party members”.

READ: ‘Let’s get on with it’ – Labour frontbencher says People’s Vote only option left on Brexit“I have been advised by lawyers with expertise in this field I have grounds for appeal against expulsion and shall do so,” he added.

Campbell, an outspoken supporter of the People’s Vote campaign, had said on LBC: “I voted for the Liberal Democrats.

“But I am not a Liberal Democrat.

“I am a Labour Party supporter and I voted because I think Labour need to get the message.”

In his Twitter thread, Campbell added that he is “and always will be” a Labour supporter, and argued that there is plenty of precedent for people voting outside the party without expulsion.  ”[It’s] hard not to point out difference in the way anti-Semitism cases have been handled,” he added.

Labour MP Jess Phillips agreed, pointing out that a Holocaust denier in her local party has still only been suspended.

Alastair Campbell at the last People’s Vote March back in October. Photograph: Ollie Millington/Rmv/Zuma Press. – Credit: Zuma Press/PA Images

Yep I do have thoughts, he was expelled quicker than a man who threatened to kill me, quicker than a man in my CLP who denied the Holocaust, both are only still suspended. https://t.co/8dRZxC3Hd5
— Jess Phillips (@jessphillips) May 28, 2019