Alastair Campbell has alleged the Labour party was discriminatory when expelling him for voting for the Liberal Democrats, because other members have not faced similar action despite publicly admitting they voted for another party.
Campbell, Tony Blair’s former communications chief, has lodged an appeal against the expulsion, which came within 48 hours of him saying he had voted for the Lib Dems in the European parliamentary elections last week.
“I am told by my friends in the Labour party that they have been inundated with people resigning,” Campbell told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday. “Are they too going to be expelled within 48 hours of saying so?”
He said his lawyer had advised him to include a point about discrimination in his formal appeal.
“Is Cherie Blair going to be expelled? Is Charles Clarke going to be expelled? Is Bob Ainsworth going to be expelled?” Campbell asked, listing other Labour members who had spoken of voting for parties other than Labour in the European elections.
Campbell said he “would like” to vote for Labour again in the next general election and referred to new polling by YouGov showing that 41% of Labour party members voted for a different party last week. YouGov also put the Lib Dems ahead of the Conservatives and Labour in general election voting intentions.
“Jeremy Corbyn just has to to look at his own constituency,” Campbell said. “He has to look at that [YouGov] poll today. Now, he can pretend he can get rid of all those people and somehow Labour is going to build a position that will win a general election, [but] at the moment that seems to be impossible.
“Jeremy Corbyn needs to decide: is he going to listen to the many – the public, the members, the MPs – or listen to the few – Seamus Milne, Karie Murphy, Len McCluskey and Andrew Murray?” he said, naming key advisers to the Labour leader, and the general secretary of the Unite union.
Labour has said it would review Campbell’s expulsion from the party only as part of the appeal process. Corbyn said he looked forward to hearing Campbell’s explanation for voting for the Lib Dems.
“It’s a question of what Mr Campbell said two days before the election, in which he apparently appeared to be supporting the Liberal Democrats, and whilst he is a member of the Labour party that is clearly not acceptable,” Corbyn said on Thursday. But we look forward to hearing what Alastair has to say about this and look forward to his support in the future.”
