Labour only let Derek Hatton back in after top brass intervened
Revealed: Labour only let Militant leader Derek Hatton back into the party after top brass intervened
- Jennie Formby discussed letting Derek Hatton rejoin party with Jeremy Corbyn
- General secretary overruled official who urged her to block bid to rejoin Labour
- Leaked emails showed that she said she would discuss move with party leader
Derek Hatton (pictured in 2016) is the former deputy leader of Liverpool City Council
Labour let Derek Hatton rejoin after its general secretary discussed the case with Jeremy Corbyn, it emerged last night.
Jennie Formby overruled an official who urged her to block the former Militant leader’s bid to rejoin Labour 34 years after he was expelled.
Leaked emails showed she said she would ‘discuss with LOTO’ – standing for Leader of the Opposition, Mr Corbyn.
A panel of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) later gave Mr Hatton provisional membership. But that was suspended after it emerged he sent a tweet blaming Jews for Israeli policy.
The news came as Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge called on Lord Falconer to reject Mr Corbyn’s invitation to take charge of Labour’s disciplinary processes.
She claimed the peer was not independent enough for the role.
It was revealed last night that Mr Hatton, the ex-deputy leader of Liverpool City Council, partied with three members of Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet a week after his suspension on February 20.
He posed for a photo with Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson at a fundraiser.
Leaked emails showed Jennie Formby (right) would ‘discuss with LOTO’ – standing for Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn (centre, at the Labour Party conference in Brighton in 2015)
Speeches were given by Dan Carden, Labour’s acting international development spokesman, Baroness Chakrabarti, the shadow Attorney-General, and Richard Burgon, the shadow Lord Chancellor.
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Miss Formby was alerted to Mr Hatton’s application by a senior member of Labour’s complaints department, the PoliticsHome website reported.
Jewish group is urged not to quit
Jeremy Corbyn made a last-ditch bid last night to stop a group of Jewish Labour members from splitting.
The Jewish Labour Movement, which has been affiliated to the party for 99 years, meets in London tonight to ask members if they want to leave.
In a letter, Mr Corbyn wrote: ‘I want to express my sincere hope that the JLM will decide to continue a relationship that has been fundamental to the history of our party. Anti-Semitism is a scourge that, to my great regret, does exist within our party.
‘I recognise the enormous distress caused to the Jewish community… when anti-Semitic sentiments are repeated by members of our party.’
He told her that because of the potential political backlash, she should reject it.
But after being assured that Mr Hatton, a hardliner expelled in 1985 for belonging to Militant – the Trotskyite group that took over Liverpool council in 1983 before Labour banned it, had done nothing to warrant a fresh expulsion, she agreed to speak to Mr Corbyn about the case.
In an email to her on April 30 last year, the Labour official said: ‘My strong advice would be that you… reject this membership application.’
Miss Formby replied: ‘I’ll discuss with LOTO and get back to you.’
A Labour source said she behaved appropriately, adding: ‘The matter was referred to the relevant NEC committee.’
Meanwhile, Dame Margaret urged Lord Falconer not to become surveillance commissioner in charge of Labour discipline.
She said he was not independent, having ‘bombarded’ her with messages last year urging her to say sorry to Mr Corbyn for accusing him of being anti-Semitic.
Lord Falconer said: ‘I am shocked she thought I was trying to pressurise her into apologising for calling Jeremy Corbyn an anti-Semite. I was trying to urge the party to drop their complaint against her.’
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