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Expelled Labour member given party conference pass
Greg Hadfield planned protest within secure zone
September 30, 2021 12:49
Greg Hadfield planned protest within secure zone
September 30, 2021 12:49Questions have been raised about Labour’s vetting process after expelled party member Greg Hadfield was given a pass to party conference.
The former Momentum official had planned to stage a protest within the secure zone of the final day of conference – but could not resist tweeting a picture of his pass in advance.
Security guards tipped off to the tweet simply stopped Hadfield at the gates, stripped him of the pass and turned him away.
A former chairman of the Brighton and Hove branch of Momentum, Mr Hadfield was among the activists ‘auto-excluded’ by Labour for his support for one of the four proscribed organisations banned from Labour in July.
He was also the organiser of the controversial Resist! festival, held at a theatre in Brighton alongside the four day Labour conference. The event featured many speakers expelled from the party, including former MP Chris Williamson and film director Ken Loach.
At the start of conference, Jewish Voice for Labour’s national co-chairwoman Leah Levan was expelled from the party and marched out of the conference venue.
She told activists at the Resist! event, held at the Rialto Theatre, that Labour members should “get a backbone” and speak out against the current leadership.
“People need to get a backbone,” she said, “People in this Labour Party are frightened to stand up and risk accusations of antisemitism, which is the old lie.”
She was backed by expelled party member Tony Greenstein. He said: “I think the great tragedy of Corbyn, McDonnell and the others is that they didn’t have the backbone to push back against antisemitism because they yield. They had to know that whenever Zionism is criticised, the first thing they do is accuse you of antisemitism. Or if you are Jewish, they accuse you of hating yourself for some reason. Which is actually, if people aren’t aware, a charge which the Nazis used against anti-fascists so there is a certain pedigree to that charge.”