But there’s room for hardliner Hatton

DEREK Hatton, the hard-Left former deputy leader of Liverpool council, has been let back in the Labour Party.

He was expelled 34 years ago by Neil Kinnock for being a member of the Militant Tendency, a Trotskyist group.

Mr Hatton revealed during last year’s Labour conference that he had applied to rejoin the party. And last night Buzzfeed reported that his application had been successful after his case was considered by a panel. He achieved notoriety in the 19 0s when he set an illegal budget in Liverpool and sent out redundancy notices by taxi to thousands of council workers.

In September he wrote that he had been inspired to reapply for Labour membership by Mr Corbyn’s leadership. ‘In all my time I have never witnessed such passion, such energy and such powerful socialist leadership,’ he said. ‘And strangely that power is despite a kinder, gentler form of politics.’

Another figure from the hard-Left, George Galloway, yesterday officially applied to re-join the party – despite the fact he stood against Labour and won a seat in Bradford for his now-defunct Respect party.