My Expulsion Letter from the Labour Party and my response

What it lacks in humour it makes up for in duplicity

Emina Ibrahim, Vice Chair of Momentum who voted for my expulsion

It is said that brevity is the soul of wit but in the case of my correspondence with McNicol’s apparatchiks the opposite applies.  As if to emphasise the gravity of my offences, Jane Shaw, the humourless Secretary to Labour’s National Constitutional Committee capitalised PROVED in the letter.  I claim no expertise in grammar but I could have sworn it should be PROVEN.  No matter, I got the message.  Labour’s Right did not want me!

Of course there was no such thing as a list of reasons or a judgement as one would expect in the most humble of social security or employment tribunals because in truth there are no rules of procedure or evidence in the NCC.  Indeed the Guidelines for the NCC operate on the basis that whatever the irregularities or injustices in the period up to the formal notification of charges they must be disregarded.  Injustice is built into the system.  Appendix 6(D) states that:

Maggi Cosins, a right-winger from the GMB chaired the expulsion panel

The NCC is entitled to (and will) act on the basis that the charges are properly brought before them and cannot become embroiled in dealing with complaints about the administration of any investigation leading to the charges. Any such complaint will therefore not be entertained by the NCC or panel thereof unless it is material or relevant to the consideration of the evidence to be used by the presenter in support of the charges.

These Guidelines, it should be said, are not actually part of the Rules of the Labour Party and are therefore only advisory, but nonetheless the NCC sticks rigidly to them. 

McNicol refused to suspend Jeremy Newmark despite allegations of fraud and now a police investigation into theft at the Jewish Labour Movement - Newmark is leader of the Labour group in Hertsmere!

Clause IX(4) of the Rule Book, which is part of the rules, specifically states that fairness must be at the heart of the Labour Party’s procedures:

The NCC shall have the power to supplement such guidelines from time to time and to modify its procedures in order to meet the circumstances of any particular case to ensure fairness to both the individual and the Party.

Labour's crooked General Secretary, Iain McNicol - my expulsion and Ken Livingstone's further suspension were almost the last acts of his reign - will only be missed by Labour's racist Right

However, in practice, the NCC deliberately chooses to ignore the question of fairness and stick rigidly to the Guidelines.  That was why I successfully brought an application for an injunction last December, preventing the NCC from holding a hearing on December 11^th.  The NCC had insisted, having sent notice of the meeting to me in hospital, that I respond within 4 weeks to a 189 page bundle and that the hearing be held within 6 weeks.  The High Court judge agreed with me that the Labour Party had provided no reason as to why they had suspended me for 20 months and why they were in such a rush to secure judgement.

picket of National Constitutional Committee

The letter of expulsion also informed me that I was no longer entitled to attend Labour Party meetings which just demonstrates their stupidity.  In fact I had been barred from attending Labour Party meetings for the duration of my suspension but, given the number of people who had been suspended, it is an understandable mistake.

One of the Untouchables

Ms Shaw, whose previous job appears to have been knitting under the shadow of the guillotine, informed me that other than in exceptional cases I would not be readmitted to the Labour Party within 5 years.  However the forced resignation of her crooked boss Iain McNicol is clearly an exceptional circumstance and I look forward to reapplying within a short time.

What makes the whole procedure ludicrous, apart from expelling a Jewish anti-racist as part of the campaign against ‘anti-Semitism’ (which of course was welcomed by the Zionist Board of Deputies, the Jewish Labour Movement and the Jewish Chronicle) was that none  of the charges related to the period prior to my suspension.  In other words I was suspended first and then they looked for evidence.

My expulsion and the 'indefinite' suspension of Ken Livingstone were almost the last acts of McNicol's reign as General Secretary.  Despite presiding over the suspension and expulsion of thousands of members, McNicol drew the line at suspending his Zionist friend Jeremy Newmark.  Despite credible allegations of fraud in his last job at the Jewish charity the Jewish Leadership Council and now a referral of certain financial 'irregularities' by the JLM to the Police, McNicol held that these allegations were 'historic' and 'private'.  One rule for racists and another for everyone else.

Having been expelled the campaign for my reinstatement begins starting with the picket of the next National Executive Committee on 20^th March.   Be there!!

Tony Greenstein