Michael Foot was a founder member of CND [Gillfoto, Wikimedia Commons, Detail, CC 4.0]

• WHEN I joined the Hampstead Labour Party in 1979 I was under no illusions.

I have never been starry-eyed about Labour and I have accepted that historically socialism has been a minority opinion, particularly in the parliamentary party.

But there was a proud democratic and campaigning tradition in Hampstead, where ideas were discussed openly with a willingness to tolerate alternative views and allow discussion. Even if you lost a vote, the debate still mattered.

The Hampstead banner went on marches, attended pickets, and was carried in solidarity. The idea that party members would not stand with striking workers was unthinkable.

The constituency affiliated with NUM branches during the miners’ strike, and we put up miners who came down to Camden to London. We organised meetings and collections. It was as natural as breathing to support workers in struggle.

Even the Gaitskellite wing of the party, which were still around when I joined Hampstead, were proud of the local connections with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and the historic Aldermaston marches.

Michael Foot, who lived in Hampstead (a future Labour leader), had marched with them. He was one of CND’s founding members.

The latest news from party headquarters that constituencies will no longer be allowed to affiliate to the Labour Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is, to say the least, jaw-dropping.

And it’s not just CND that Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour are forbidding local parties to support. Also banned (without discussion) are the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Stop the War Coalition, Republic, the London-Irish Abortion Rights Campaign, the Jewish Voice for Labour, Somalis for Labour, Sikhs for Labour, the All African Women’s Group, the Health Campaign Together, the Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group, and (predictably) the Peace and Justice Project.

It’s quite appalling what Sir Keir Starmer is doing to Labour. On the evidence of proscriptions and expulsions, Nigel Farage would waltz into Starmer’s Labour Party.

Michael Foot, Hampstead’s most famous campaigner, wouldn’t be allowed space on the pavement by the entrance.

STEVEN TAYLOR
Hampstead & Kilburn CLP