Alastair Campbell purged from Corbyn’s LAB for backing the LDs in last week’s election
Well this is all going a bit East Germany ca 1953 … Labour expels Alastair Campbell from party https://t.co/q35cU1ysVr
— anne mcelvoy (@annemcelvoy) May 28, 2019
I suspect if they knew all the members who voted LibDem or Green in EU elections and expelled them there would be few of us left https://t.co/AAeaJ8YjDL
— George Foulkes (@GeorgeFoulkes) May 28, 2019
Remember Corbyn taking pleasure at Labour's defeat in the 2012 Bradford by-election pic.twitter.com/yKMOZKvf9M
— Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) May 28, 2019
So the ramifications of Thursday’s election continue
Almost all parties haw a rule about members publicly backing other parties in elections and LAB is no exception. Already we’ve seen the Tories take action Lord Heseltine for his public support for the anti-Brexit LDs in last week’s elections.
Now Corbyn’s LAB has moved against Campbell who played such a key role in Labour’s three successive general election victories from 1997 to 2005.
A real issue within Labour which undoubtedly depressed turnout for the party last week is that the Corbyn/Milne approach to Brexit is very different from the vast bulk of Labour supporters. On Thursday Labour did far worse than just about all the polls were predicting and came in third place well behind the LDs. That wouldn’t have happened if the leadership had reflected the party support base on the key issue of the day.
The problem with this action is that it drives the narrative of LAB being a party that is totally split on the issue and voters don’t like divided parties.
Campbell himself is taking legal advice. This is not the end of the matter.