Hatton suspended just days after readmission by Labour
Derek Hatton was suspended from the Labour Party yesterday, just two days after his readmission was confirmed. The ex-deputy leader of Liverpool City Council and former member of the hard-left Militant tendency announced his return to Labour ranks on Monday after being expelled 34 years ago by Neil Kinnock for belonging to the faction.
However, he has now been suspended again while party bosses investigate a tweet he posted in 2012: “Jewish people with any sense of humanity need to start speaking out publicly against the ruthless
murdering being carried out by Israel!” The post has since been deleted.
Shadow international trade secretary Barry Gardiner, a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, said he had lodged a formal complaint with general secretary Jennie Formby and described the move as “appalling”.
His return to the fold came as eight Labour MPs left to form a breakaway party in protest at Mr Corbyn’s leadership, including over antisemitism. Mr Gardiner told MPs he had ”lodged a formal complaint” with party bosses, during an impassioned speech against anti-Jewish hate in the Commons. He said: “This morning I saw the reports about not just the readmission of Derek Hatton but the tweets he has mentioned.
“I wrote to the general secretary of our party, I lodged a formal complaint. I understand that action has since been taken in respect of the complaint and I’m sure that I will be looking out to see precisely what appropriate action is taken in due course.” He added: “I think it was a travesty that, at least I think many of us knew for some while that he had applied to rejoin the party, but for the news of his readmission to come to public attention on the very day when some members of our party were forced out – I think it was appalling.”
Mr Hatton was thrown out of the party for belonging to the Militant faction and for overseeing an illegal “deficit” budget in protest at Margaret Thatcher‘s Conservative government. He also caused controversy in the 1980s over the move, and clashed with the Labour leadership over stunts such as sending redundancy notices to council workers via taxis.
The tweet first came to light after Mr Hatton spoke of his return on Monday, when it was flagged by Labour MP Ian Austin. The Dudley North MP, a vocal critic of his party’s handling of antisemitism, said: “Keen to address the Jewish community’s concerns and widespread worries that the Labour Party has been taken over by a sectarian hard-left faction, the party yesterday readmitted Derek Hatton.”
A Labour source told The Independent: “The party wasn’t aware of the tweet when Derek Hatton applied to rejoin. The party is taking action and decided to do so after we became aware. This happened before Barry [Gardiner] and Tom [Watson] wrote to the general secretary’s office.”