Why Alastair Campbell is wrong to fight to rejoin Labour

Alastair Campbell. Photograph: Alastair Campbell/Twitter. - Credit: Archant

Readers have their say on People’s Vote campaigner Alastair Campbell being expelled from the Labour Party.

I can’t understand why your editor-at-large is applying to rejoin Labour (TNE #146). The party he feels emotionally close to is dead, Corbyn’s leadership has killed it.

Even if they were forced to support to a new referendum, the leadership would campaign for a unicorn, “jobs-first” Brexit, so one way or another, as Steven Fielding put it, “Corbyn will get his Brexit” (TNE #146). By asking to re-join, Campbell is effectively supporting that situation.

Unless Corbyn and his anti-EU clique can be removed, Alastair Campbell should stay away. Meantime all the values Campbell holds dear now have a new name: Liberal Democrats.

John King, Stratford-upon-Avon

Alastair Campbell did something unusual in modern British politics: he was asked a question and answered it. Modern politicians no longer do this. No wonder the electorate is fed up.

Shame on the Labour Party for expelling Mr Campbell. It was a cheap shot and only reveals a weak party.

Linda Halsey

I consider myself to be a ‘conviction’ not a ‘tribal’ voter. I joined the Labour Party and worked to support it because it was the one which matched my personal ethic and political principles most.

I considered the EU elections a single issue proxy vote on Brexit and Labour no longer represented my views, so I voted Lib Dem. However, though I am uncomfortable with Labour’s political drift and lack of coherent leadership, leaving the party was still a step too far.

Then came the treatment of Alastair Campbell. I now feel I have no choice but to resign from the Labour party and to do so before the email arrives.

Paul Stein, Pickering

So, the Tory and Labour parties have disciplined Michael Heseltine and Alastair Campbell. Perhaps they might be better employed in asking themselves why two such staunch supporters voted Liberal Democrat in the European elections and then told the rest of us about it.

Could it be something our two main parties are getting wrong, do you think?

Sarah Williams, St Ives

While I have not forgotten Alastair Campbell’s role in the Iraq War, his championing of a People’s Vote has given us an important voice. Can it be a coincidence that his swift expulsion from the Labour party, following so quickly on his admission of voting Lib Dem, was because of his recent excoriating attack on Seumas Milne?

Chris Clode, Wrexham

– Join the conversation by writing to The New European – send your letters for publication to letters@theneweuropean.co.uk – and pick up your copy every Thursday.