• WHAT’S happening inside the Labour Party at the moment is different from anything that I’ve known since I became a member some 40 years ago.

I’ve held pretty much every position in the local party during that time including CLP chair.

The decision of the Sir Keir Starmer leadership to suspend the current chair and vice-chair of Hampstead & Kilburn party for daring to discuss the withdrawal of the party whip from Jeremy Corbyn is unique in its brute application.

Party members are the very lifeblood of the party, a party which is meant to revere democracy, discussion, and open debate.

There was no legal reasoning for denying the party a discussion on the merits (or otherwise) of Corbyn. It was a straightforward political instruction, ordering us not have a discussion. The meeting decided otherwise.

It is appalling that party officers, acting on behalf of the meeting and the local membership, have been singled out and suspended for allowing the debate to go ahead.

It brings shame on our party and our movement, and particular shame on our MPs, Sir Keir and Tulip Siddiq.

We deserve better than two MPs who oppose our democracy and deny us our rights as party members. They demean us all and themselves.

STEVEN TAYLOR