Zoe Williams, in her interview with Neal Lawson , gravely underestimates the awfulness of what has happened inside the Labour party (Neal Lawson on the threat of expulsion by Labour: ‘They are making sure no one on the left has a platform’, 24 July). A critical reading of the party’s rulebook shows that members have no rights whatsoever. The party’s national executive committee is empowered to do anything that it agrees is required to further the party’s interests. In the hands of sufficiently ruthless people, that is fatal. Lawson’s assessment that “they need to get rid of the seedbed” of left ideas is about right, even though that is a mirage for them to chase. Imagine how such people will behave when put in charge of the intricate and largely deadlocked mechanism that is UK society.
How does Williams think that Jeremy Corbyn was ever in a position to become the unlikely beneficiary of the leftward stirring in public politics that began around 2015? Even the Blairites, perhaps because of their arrogance and triumphalism, allowed left figures such as Corbyn, Diane Abbott and John McDonnell to inhabit a corner of the parliamentary Labour party, on the naughty step, as long as they acted as though they knew their place. The new lot see that as an error they will not repeat, so the broad church model is defunct. The people involved in that perturbation in public opinion, which could have been beneficial for UK politics, have been given a slap and told to go elsewhere. Maybe they will. I rejoined Labour in 2015 to support those social changes. I was never a big fan of Corbyn, although he did turn out to be competent, determined and at times personally very brave. We should have been tougher. I left in 2021, by not renewing my membership. I could not go on giving my money, and my support, to people who would behave like that. Dave Bradney Llanrhystud, Ceredigion • Re expulsions from Labour, my local branch seems to have expelled some lifelong members, both old and young, for doing little more than giving a thumbs-up to a pro-Palestinian – not antisemitic – tweet. This used to be a party that had heated discussions between the likes of Dennis Skinner, Tony Benn and Denis Healey. All were critical friends, as indeed were my colleagues in the local party. Appeals seem to be slow or nonexistent.
Over 50 years of membership, I have varied from the left of the party to the centre, and then left the party in disgust over the Iraq invasion and the imposition of crippling university fees. I rejoined during the Brexit debate to try to add my support. I have never failed to vote Labour. As with Neal Lawson, it doesn’t matter if I am a member in the great scheme of things, but it does matter that local people question me as to why a good local councillor at parish, county or other level has been expelled. Non-party members who might be thinking of voting Labour don’t understand these niceties. Please let us go back to arguing with each other, but all working for the common good. I wonder if I will be expelled for this? Jane Tomlin Wylam, Northumberland • Sadly, the inevitable response to Neal Lawson’s belated concern at Labour expulsions in Zoe Williams’ interview is: “First they came for the socialists…” John Clark Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan