EXCL Top Labour official warned Jennie Formby not to let Derek Hatton rejoin party
3 min read
Jennie Formby over-ruled a senior Labour official after he urged her to block Derek Hatton's bid to re-join the party.
Emails seen by PoliticsHome reveal that Labour's general secretary was alerted to the controversial left-winger's application last year by a top staffer in the party's complaints department.
He said that because of the potential political backlash, it was his "strong advice" that she reject his application unilaterally.
But after being assured the former deputy leader of Liverpool City Council - who was expelled by Labour in 1985 for being a member of Militant - had done nothing of late that would warrant a fresh expulsion, Ms Formby agreed to consult Jeremy Corbyn's office about what to do next.
Mr Hatton was eventually allowed to re-join the party last month, but was suspended just days later when a tweet he posted calling on Jewish people with any "humanity" to criticise Israel emerged.
In his initial email to Ms Formby on 30 April last year, the official said: "I fully understand that there are political sensitivities here which you may want to discuss with Loto (Leader of the Opposition's Office) - but could you give me a steer once you've had those conversations on what action you want to take?"
In her reply, Ms Formby said: "When did he last do anything that would warrant exclusion?"
On 2 May, the official responded: "It is difficult to pin anything specific that he has done recently which would warrant expulsion in and of itself. However, that isn't the test which needs to be applied - under rule the general secretary has the right to reject a member for any reason he/she sees fit."
He added: "The political cost of readmission is likely to be quite high and a lot of work will need to go in with people like Lord Kinnock to try and mitigate against the derivative reputational impact that will have. By contrast, the cost of rejecting his membership, given you are perfectly justified [under the rules] in doing so, would be relatively low.
"Balancing the two, my strong advice would be that you should reject this membership application."
Ms Formby then replied: "I'll discuss with Loto and get back to you."
A special panel of Labour's ruling National Executive Committee eventually gave Mr Hatton a "provisional membership" in February, but that has now been suspended.
RULEBOOK
A Labour party source insisted Ms Formby had behaved appropriately throughout the process.
"The matter was referred to the relevant NEC committee to consider in accordance with the party’s rule book," said the source. "Membership applications are a separate process to disciplinary processes."
Shadow International Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner was among those who criticised the decision to re-admit Mr Hatton, which emerged on the same day that seven Labour MPs quit the party to form the new Independent Group.
He said: "I think it was a travesty. Many of us knew for some while that he had applied to re-join the party, but for the news of his readmission to come to public attention on the day, on the very day when some members of our party were forced out I think was appalling."
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