My Labour Party Expulsion Story

 John Courtneidge 10 April 2021

I was expelled from The Labour Party on 10th February 2020, along with a batch of about two dozen others, all unknown to me.

There was no hearing, no appeal and no permission to re-apply 'within seven years' and, then 'only in exceptional circumstances.

The grounds for the expulsion was notified to me a year earlier, that some of my Facebook posts (about Zionism ) were considered anti-Semitic: which they were not, and to which I lodged a request for a Hearing.

That request for a Hearing was accepted and an offer to attend was made in March 2019, with the condition that I would not be allowed to call witnesses, and with only a 'Silent Friend' present at my side. I accepted that offer and conditions and my fellow Labour Action for Peace ('LAP') Executive Committee friend, Colin Bastin, agreed to act as my Silent Friend.

In the meantime, about two dozen friends wrote to The Labour Party: contesting the charge of anti-Semitism, and declaring, very kindly, their support.

The Labour Party, then, reneged on their offer.

Instead, it changed the Disciplinary Rules and Procedure at its September 2019 Annual Conference (in Brighton, where I was working on the LAP Stall, jointly with Uniting for Peace and Justice), so that a Discipline Sub-Committee could recommend Expulsion-without-Hearing if it so wished.

And the NEC accepted.

Hence my expulsion on 10th February 2020, as detailed above: no Hearing, no Appeal, no permission to re-apply for Membership inside seven years and then . . .

The news of this block of appeals was only made public in The Jewish Chronicle on the following day, Wednesday 11th February 2020, with a reference to that in The Huffington Post a few days' later.