Derek Hatton – who was kicked out of the Labour Party for being a member of the left-wing Militant Tendency group – has branded Labour splitters “pathetic”.
It was revealed on Monday – the same day that seven Labour MPs quit the party over anti-Semitism and Brexit to form a new ’Independent Group’ in parliament – that Hatton, the former deputy leader of Liverpool City Council, had been allowed to rejoin.
Now aged 71, Hatton faced heavy criticism in the 1980s for running an illegal budget at the council, demanding that Margaret Thatcher’s government made up the shortfall. The council hired taxis to deliver redundancy notices to its own workers.
He was expelled from the party by former leader Neil Kinnock and had been prevented from returning until now.
But speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Hatton criticised the decision of Luciana Berger, Chuka Umunna, Chris Leslie and four other MPs to quit Labour.
Arguing that in a way he had “never left” the party, the newly-minted Labour member said: “For 34 years I’ve stayed absolutely solid with the Labour Party, never joined any other party.”
He said he had never campaigned or voted for another party, even though it was “tempting to go” under Tony Blair’s leadership.
“That’s why when you look at the seven who have left now, you think: ‘Well, how pathetic is it?’ How strong are you within the Labour movement to want to run away when there’s something you disagree with?”
Blasting what he described as Mike Gapes’ decision to leave the party over disagreements with the leadership as “not a reason to run away” but something to “stay and fight”, Hatton went on to suggest that Liverpool Wavertree MP Berger “went before she was pushed”.
In an impassioned resignation speech yesterday, the Jewish MP – who was accompanied by police protection at last year’s Labour conference due to threats – accused Jeremy Corbyn’s party of being “institutionally anti-Semitic”, saying she was leaving behind a culture of “bullying, bigotry and intimidation”.
Berger was set to face two no-confidence votes in her constituency earlier this month, before the motions were withdrawn at the eleventh hour.
But asked whether he would be interested in contesting her south Liverpool seat, Hatton said: “I can assure you, Derek Hatton will not be the candidate for Wavertree.”
His comments come on the same day that shadow chancellor John McDonnell said that Labour must engage in a “mammoth, massive listening exercise” to deal with some of the criticisms aimed at the party.
But speaking to Sky News, he played down suggestions that as many as 36 of Corbyn’s MPs had been considering a split.
“I don’t think there is that scale, but the key issue for us – and it was made clear at the Parliamentary Labour Party, Tom Watson said it and others – the Labour leadership, and I’m part of that, we need to keep listening, bring people in, talk to them,” he said.
McDonnell said the “only disagreement we have had within the party is around how we handle Brexit and I think we are bringing people together on that.”
