A Holocaust denier and a leading member of Militant during its takeover of Liverpool council are among a first wave of expelled hard-left activists who have been readmitted to the Labour Party, it can be revealed today.

A leak from Labour headquarters shows the extent of the resurgent left’s control over the party after recent elections to its governing body, where Momentum candidates won a “clean sweep” of new positions.

Activists have been allowed to rejoin despite still belonging to organisations “proscribed” by Labour — including a Trotskyist group, the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty. Others stood against Labour for hard-left parties as recently as 2016.

The decisions disclosed today were taken at the first meeting of Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) since the left took