This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Derek Hatton, the leftwing former deputy leader of Liverpool council, claims to have rejoined the Labour party.

Labour said he was not a member of the party. However, it is understood the party has found no reason to deny an application from Hatton, who claimed in the Liverpool Echo that he had been readmitted 33 years after being kicked out by the then leader, Neil Kinnock.

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Hatton was expelled for belonging to the leftwing Militant Tendency. He caused a national outcry in the 1980s by setting an illegal council budget and was denounced at the 1985 Labour conference for using taxis to send redundancy notices to thousands of council workers.

He and other members of the Trotskyite group were widely blamed for making the party unelectable during Kinnock’s tenure.

Hatton said he was inspired by Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership to reapply for membership.

The 70-year-old, writing in the Liverpool Echo, said he spent much of the last 33 years at odds with the Labour leadership, particular over Tony Blair’s decision to invade Iraq.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Derek Hatton (R) at the 1985 Labour party conference with Peter Taaffe, editor of the Militant newspaper. Photograph: Associated/Rex/Shutterstock

However, he said, he had remained committed to the party throughout the period and that the recent Labour conference had prompted him to rejoin.

He wrote: “In all my time I have never witnessed such passion, such energy and such powerful socialist leadership. And strangely that power is despite a kinder, gentler form of politics. Many people, myself included, probably never thought we would witness an unswerving socialist like Jeremy Corbyn at the helm.

“He stands there with a set of policies clearly aimed at benefiting the vast majority of people in this country and a strategy which will not be dictated to, or influenced by, the five billionaires who own 90% of the country’s media.”

He added: “Now I’m a ‘Labour party member’ I believe nothing should take our eye off the ball of securing a Labour government under Corbyn.”

The Liverpool Echo reported that despite returning to the party, Hatton had no plans to run for public office.