Gisela Stuart says she has not been kicked out of Labour despite campaigning with Tories

Former Labour MP Gisela Stuart speaking at a press conference in support of Boris Johnson during the general election campaign. Picture: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire/PA Images - Credit: PA Wire/PA Images

Brexiteer and former MP Gisela Stuart has said today that she is still a member of the Labour party, despite urging the public to vote Tory in the general election.

Extraordinary revelation on @talkRADIO this morning: @GiselaStuart says that she is still a Labour member - they haven't kicked her out - despite campaigning with Boris Johnson to elect a Conservative government. Seems double standard given @campbellclaret was ousted.
— Benjamin Butterworth (@benjaminbutter) December 30, 2019

The former Vote Leave chair, who stood down as an MP in 2017, publicly called on voters to “set party allegiance aside to get Brexit done” by voting for Boris Johnson’s Conservatives.

She made the statements in a scathing attack on Jeremy Corbyn at a Tory election campaign event, alongside Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, on November 29.

Despite this, when asked by TalkRadio presenter James Max is she iss still a member, she replied: “Well they’re still collecting my subs [membership fees]”.

The news has prompted comment about the consistency with which membership rules are followed for high-profile Labour figures.

Recalling the expulsion of former Labour press secretary Alastair Campbell in July, the ipaper’s Benjamin Butterworth said: “Seems double standard given @campbellclaret was ousted.”

Campbell – who is also The New European’s editor-at-large – was ousted from the party after announcing that he had voted Liberal Democrat in the EU parliament elections, but did not campaign for the pro-EU party.

He said he then received a party message informing him that he had been “automatically expelled” from membership for “voting for or otherwise supporting another party which were ‘incompatible’ with membership according to party rules”.

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Reacting to the news that Stuart is still a Labour member, host Max joked: “Well that sort of tells me everything I need to know.”

Speaking about the future Labour leader, Stuart – who has been a strident critic of Corbyn – refused to endorse any particular MP for the leadership.

She said: “I would condemn them by my endorsement”, but spoke admiringly of backbenchers Lisa Nandy and Jess Phillips.

They are, she said, a “new generation that have not yet seen government but they understand that with ideology and ideas have to come responsibility”.

Stuart also talked about the “weird gap of amnesia” in the party about Blair’s election success, which she felt had been forgotten or devalued by the current membership.