Former militant firebrand Derek Hatton has been left out in the cold after a bid to rejoin the Labour Party was blocked three decades after he was first expelled.

The Armani-suited socialist, who vocally confronted Margaret Thatcher's Tory government as Liverpool's Labour leader in the 1980s, found brotherly love had run dry at Labour central office.

It came almost 30 years after the Militant Tendency was purged by then leader Neil Kinnock.

Mr Hatton had been willing to bury the hatchet with former comrades, but unfortunately for him so had Labour - Trotsky style after he tried to join in the wake of Labour's election defeat.

A party spokesman said: "The general secretary of the Labour Party has objected to this application to join."

Mr Hatton had said he wanted to "have one more go at having a say in the way the Labour Party is going".

Speaking on ITV Granada's political programme, Party People, Mr Hatton said: "I just felt that I should do something", and at the time appeared to believe he had been readmitted as a member.

"I don't think I ever thought about that," he said.

"It's 29 years since all that happened and I didn't for one second think that anyone was going to have an issue with it now because the world is a different place, the Labour Party is a different place, Derek Hatton is a different person and I didn't for one second think that that was going to be the issue."

Mr Hatton said: "I think for too long now the Labour Party has drifted and drifted and drifted ... there has now become no difference between the parties ... it was the same type of Eton/Oxford person going forward ... people now need to see that there is a clear choice when they go to the booth.