Alastair Campbell, the former communications chief to Tony Blair, has been expelled from the Labour party for saying he voted for the Liberal Democrats in the European elections because of their support for a second Brexit referendum.

The People’s Vote campaigner said he was “sad and disappointed” at his expulsion, especially as he felt it had happened on the day the Labour leadership appeared to be moving in the direction of supporting another Brexit poll because of the exodus of remainers from the party.

Campbell said that, after taking advice from a lawyer, he would appeal against the decision.

“I am and always will be Labour,” he said in a series of tweets. “I voted Lib Dem, without advance publicity, to try to persuade Labour to do right thing for country/party. In light of appeal, I won’t be doing media on this. But hard not to point out difference in the way antisemitism cases have been handled.”

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The news prompted immediate recriminations from Labour backbenchers and members who support Campbell’s stance on a second referendum, who characterised the decision as evidence that the party leadership’s priorities were wrong.

Jess Phillips, the MP for Birmingham Yardley, tweeted that Campbell was “expelled quicker than a man who threatened to kill me [and] quicker than a man in my [local party] who denied the Holocaust”, adding that the two had only been suspended.

The former Labour home secretary Charles Clarke called on the party to reinstate Campbell and said he also voted Liberal Democrat in the European elections.

“His expulsion from Labour party membership is a disgrace and only compounds Labour’s current political difficulties,” Clarke said. “I also voted Liberal Democrat. This was a one-off decision because of the hopeless incoherence of Labour’s position, particularly that of Jeremy Corbyn, on Brexit.

“I have been a Labour party member for 47 years and have never before voted anything but Labour ... And I shall be voting for Labour’s excellent MP for Cambridge, Daniel Zeichner, in the next general election, whenever it comes. Labour should immediately withdraw its expulsion of Alastair.”

Yet others said that the decision was simply a matter of applying the rules. Shadow minister Dawn Butler said that any member who said they had voted for another party would automatically be excluded. “It’s just part of the rulebook,” she told the BBC. “Everyone knows that.”

Campbell said there were plenty of previous cases where members had voted for other parties and causes, and some were now senior party staff members. He appeared to be alluding to Andrew Murray, who spent much of his life as a member of the Communist party before joining Labour in 2016 and entering the leader’s office as a part-time adviser to Jeremy Corbyn last year.

The former Downing Street director of communications also drew attention to Blair’s decision to allow Corbyn to stay in the Labour party in an era when the prime minister was being pressurised to withdraw the whip from rebellious leftwingers.

Later on Tuesday, speaking outside his home in north London, Campbell claimed senior Labour figures recommended voting for other parties. “I think that there are people in Jeremy Corbyn’s office, senior positions in Jeremy Corbyn’s office, who have recommended voting against the Labour party,” he said.

He said he had voted in the “best interests” of Labour by supporting the Lib Dems at the European elections. “You can interpret the rules in all sorts of different ways, but one thing I know is I’m not going to leave the party just because some random email comes in telling me that I’ve been expelled,” he added. “So I will definitely appeal against it and we will see where that goes.”

Campbell declined to say who he would vote for in a snap general election were one to be held.

He said: “I want to vote Labour at the general election but that will depend on the policy that the Labour Party puts forward between now and then in relation to Brexit.”

He later said in a series of tweets: “Among many many messages of support have been some from Corbyn’s office, shadow cabinet, MPs, union leaders and party staff including one telling me there is a mountain of emails from members who responded to mobilisation email by saying no to campaigning and not voting Labour.

“Remains to be seen whether all who have said they did not vote Labour will now be expelled. It’s bad enough being venal. But the incompetence is what makes the venality worse”



A Labour party spokeswoman said Campbell had been expelled because “support for another political party or candidate is incompatible with party membership”.

She said: “The Lib Dems cannot and will not end austerity. They cannot bring our country together or be trusted to deliver on their promises. They propped up the Tories for five years and imposed the austerity that has devastated our communities. Labour will do things very differently, and ensure our society is run for the benefit of the many, not just a privileged few.”



Amid the criticism of Labour for being slower to exclude people accused of antisemitism, Huda Elmi, a national executive committee member, said the party had different processes for dealing with the two different offences.

“I agree we need to expel antisemites much more quickly. But, for clarity, auto-exclusion is a different process,” she said. “The party’s rulebook is clear.”

Labour’s rulebook says that any party member who supports a political organisation other than Labour, or supports any candidate who stands against an official Labour candidate, is ineligible to be or remain a party member and is therefore automatically excluded from membership.

Michael Heseltine, the Conservative former deputy prime minister, was suspended from his party recently for saying he would vote for the Liberal Democrats in the European elections.

Andrew Cooper, the founder of the polling firm Populus and David Cameron’s director of strategy in Downing Street, was also suspended by the Tories for the same reason.