No Labour grandee is above the rules of the party – Alastair Campbell had to go

Don’t be deceived: Alastair Campbell knew exactly what he was doing when he publicly declared his support for an opposition party, not least the party that propped up cruel Tory austerity and supported benefit cuts in exchange for a 5p plastic bag charge when in coalition.

Despite his statement that he is “and always will be Labour”, he did vote Liberal Democrat and the Labour Party rulebook (chapter 2 paragraph 4, to be precise) clearly states that members who support a party other than Labour are automatically ineligible for membership.

He has a right to appeal against this decision, of course, but it seems like a pretty cut-and-dried case to me, akin to many I have seen before on the national executive committee. It would amaze me if the appeal was successful, having encountered cases markedly similar to Campbell’s on the NEC disputes subcommittee: would we have to reverse all these similar past decisions as well? Rather than a “Stalinist act of revenge” by Jeremy Corbyn, as some have called it, expelling Alastair Campbell is simply sticking to the rules, decided by conference and implemented by Jennie Formby and the governance and legal unit, not the leader.

Maybe this shocked Campbell because New Labour weren’t always known for sticking to the party’s rules, often attempting top-down manoeuvres to bypass members; as well as presiding over a vague and weak disputes process compared with today’s, which deals with more than half a million members and countless more complaints.

Ironically, the left on the NEC are the ones to have pushed for reforms to the auto-exclusion process – including hearing and appeals, after it was alleged to have been used, along with suspensions, to exclude members from voting for Jeremy Corbyn in the leadership election of 2016.

A question remains: why would you wish to stay a member of the Labour Party if you supported another party? A basic condition of membership, it seems obvious to me, would be supporting the party at election time. The Labour Party’s press team reassured members that how they vote is obviously a private matter (the NEC hasn’t installed cameras in voting booths), but to publicly declare that you are voting for someone else is contravening the rule book.

And why court expulsion over this, of all issues? Why is Brexit the final straw after illegal invasions, mass privatisation and the public bashing of trade unionists, as we shamefully have done as a party over the past few decades? This baffles me.

Tom Watson has suggested an amnesty for all members declaring support for other parties around the issue of Europe, which would require an immediate change of rules. But we don’t have a top-down, bureaucratic party. Jeremy Corbyn, Jennie Formby or even the NEC can’t make amendments to our rulebook; only the sovereign body of national conference every September. This is how decision-making should stay.

If there is to be any integrity, and if they are to have any legal standing, the Labour Party’s rules have to be applied fairly and swiftly to all members, no matter their prominence as a media figure or whether they hold a party position. The Labour Party is more than its spinners and its politicians. It is kept alive by a movement of hundreds of thousands of activists, trade unionists and supporters across the UK. Any rules that they have to adhere to, those who have received prominence on the back of our party should as well.

Post-expulsion, Campbell added: “I suspect I will be in and around Labour longer than some of the people around Jeremy Corbyn at the moment.” Well, the next generation of members say to the proponents of the Iraq war and years of neoliberalism: fairer Labour Party structures and socialist policies are here to stay.

Lara McNeill is a member of Labour’s national executive committee