Don’t readmit Alastair Campbell to Labour, say party members

A majority of Labour members believe that Alastair Campbell should not be readmitted to the party as a member, the latest LabourList survey has found.

Of 7,650 party members polled by LabourList over the weekend, over 50% said he should not be let back into the party while 43% said he should be. The rest were uncertain.

A lower percentage of LabourList readers as a whole, including non-members, believed he should not be readmitted. They were more evenly divided than members, with 48% against readmittance and 46% in favour.

Campbell, a director of communications and spokesman for the Labour Party under Tony Blair, was automatically expelled from the party after announcing on television that he had voted for the Liberal Democrats in the European elections.

Commenting on the decision at the time, a Labour spokesperson said: “Support for another political party or candidate is incompatible with party membership.”

The Blairite critic of Jeremy Corbyn and Labour’s Brexit policy has stated that he intends to appeal his auto-exclusion, and many Labour members have expressed their support and solidarity – particularly as others also voted against Labour.

But LabourList-reading members who took our latest survey are divided on the issue, with fewer in favour of readmitting him (43%) than against (50.6%).

Appearing on ITV’s Peston last week, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey suggested that the story had been engineered by Campbell to cause trouble in the party.

“Alastair knew exactly what he was doing,” the trade union leader said. “He knows that there’s an auto-exclusion policy within the Labour party rules. He did it to create a controversy.”

Do you think Alastair Campbell should be readmitted to the Labour Party as a member?

Readers:

1. No – 47.6% (4,420)
2. Yes – 45.9% (4,264)
3. Don’t know – 6.5% (602)

Members:

1. No – 50.6% (3,869)
2. Yes – 43% (3,289)
3. Don’t know – 6.4% (492)

The survey was open from 11am on Sunday 2nd June until 6pm on Monday 3rd June. Thank you to all 9,286 readers who took part. Read the full results here.