Derek Hatton has been suspended from the Labour Party two days after being allowed back in, HuffPost UK understands.
The decision to allow the Militant ringleader, who was banned by ex-leader Neil Kinnock in the 1980s, back into Jeremy Corbyn’s party sparked outrage on Monday.
It came just hours after the shock resignation of eight Labour MPs and the formation of Independent Group (TIG) and as Corbyn tries to stop others from following in their footsteps.
But now, amid threats as many as 10 MPs were preparing to follow in the footsteps of Luciana Berger, Chuka Umunna, Chris Leslie, Ann Coffey, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes, Gavin Shuker and Joan Ryan, party chiefs have suspended the controversial figure’s membership.
The issue was raised by Labour’s Ruth Smeeth during a debate on anti-Semitism on Wednesday, as she vowed to stay in the party, telling MPs “they will have to take my membership card off me”.
Shadow Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner also revealed that he would lodge a complaint with the leadership.
Hatton’s suspension came after Dudley North MP Ian Austin, who has not ruled out walking from Labour, retweeted a tweet Hatton sent in 2012, which said: “Jewish people with any sense of humanity need to start speaking out publicly against the ruthless murdering being carried out by Israel.”
Labour has faced repeated criticism that it has not done enough to tackle anti-Semitism in its ranks.
When Austin discovered the tweet, he said it was “unacceptable to suggest Britain’s Jewish community are responsible for Israel’s government”, and added: “It is a complete disgrace to let Derek Hatton back in to the party, but to do it on the day decent people have been driven out of the party, one of them a Liverpool MP bullied out by racism, is an outrageous insult.”
Shadow Trade Secretary Barry Gardiner lodged a complaint when he learned of Hatton’s readmission.
The party has said it was not aware of the tweet when Hatton applied to rejoin.
“Derek Hatton was given provisional membership, pending National Executive Committee (NEC) approval,” said a party source. “The party was not aware of this material. Once this was brought to our attention he was suspended pending the NEC’s decision.”
Now aged 71, Hatton faced heavy criticism in the 1980s for running an illegal budget at Liverpool council, demanding that Margaret Thatcher’s government made up the shortfall. The council hired taxis to deliver redundancy notices to its own workers.