TONY Blair's former spin doctor Alastair Campbell has been booted out the Labour Party after voting for the Liberal Democrats in the European elections.
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.
The move came after he appeared on BBC's election night broadcast on Sunday and said he had voted Liberal Democrat "to try to persuade Labout to do the right thing".
The former Downing Street director of communications said on the broadcast: "I didn't vote Labour for the first time in my life, and it was a very strange feeling.
"But I felt on this issue, at this time, the Labour Party has let its own supporters down, it has let its own members down and I think it has let the country down in the way that it has failed properly to devise a policy that the party and the country can unite around and the way it failed to campaign.
"Fair play to Nigel Farage's party, they campaigned."
He later said he would "always will be Labour" and appeal the expulsion.
He added: "I was not intending to publicise this at this stage, but have had calls from friends in the party telling me it is now widely known and likely to be leaked. I have been advised by lawyers with expertise in this field I have grounds for appeal against expulsion and shall do so.
"I am and always will be Labour. 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 anti-Semitism cases have been handled.
"[There are] plenty of precedent of members voting for other parties/causes. Some are now senior Party staff. [The] approach also contrasts with our era when TB [Tony Blair] was being pressed by whips to withdraw whip for JC [Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn] and others for persistently voting against Labour in Parliament, and he said No."
READ MORE: Labour Party under investigation by watchdog over anti-Semitism complaints
Shadow minister Dawn Butler said members who admitted voting for another party were "automatically excluded".
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.
"It's just part of the rule book. Everyone knows that," she said.
A Labour party spokeswoman said it had happened 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.”
Michael Heseltine, the former Tory deputy prime minister, was suspended from the Conservative Party recently for saying he would vote for the Liberal Democrats in the European election.
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